Excelsior College Named Graduating and Transfer University for Study.com

Posted on by Alicia Jacobs

Learning Platform Partners with Pioneer in Online Learning to Provide Full Degrees in Business

Albany, N.Y. & Mountain View, Calif. — Study.com, a leading online education platform, announced an in-depth partnership with Excelsior College to provide affordable options to students looking to complete their degree. Students can use Study.com to complete courses and then transfer as many as 113 credits to Excelsior College, making it one of the most generous transfer programs in the country.

Students can choose between two designated pathways to earn a degree with Excelsior (BS in Liberal Arts or BS in Business) or enroll in any Excelsior degree program (such as cybersecurity, nursing, and health sciences) with the ability to transfer up to 113 credits toward their bachelor’s degree.

James N. Baldwin, president of Excelsior College, stated, “Excelsior College is a regionally accredited, not-for-profit distance learning institution founded in 1971. We have a long history of helping students from all backgrounds complete their degree. We are excited to have individuals jump-start their careers, add more value to their organizations, and achieve their educational goals with affordable options through this partnership with Study.com.”

Study.com’s College Accelerator program enables users to cut the cost of college tuition by more than half by taking college courses online. Students can complete courses taught by qualified subject experts and learn through 5-minute video lessons when it fits their personal schedules. Study.com students work with a success coach to make a degree roadmap and stay on track. Students interested in enrollment with Excelsior must follow admissions requirements set forth by Excelsior.

“Excelsior College has been on the cutting edge of making education accessible by being one of the first colleges to provide online classes – breaking the status quo of university education,” said Chris Mancini, chief growth officer at Study.com. “Our alignment in mission gives us the utmost confidence to accelerate this partnership and work together to flip the current education model on its head.”

For more information about the Study.com partnership with Excelsior College, visit here: https://www.excelsior.edu/partner/study-com/. For more information regarding admission requirements, visit https://www.excelsior.edu/admissions/.

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About Excelsior College

Excelsior College (excelsior.edu) is a regionally accredited, not-for-profit online college focused on helping adults complete their degrees and advance their careers. The college contributes to the development of a diverse, educated, and career-ready society by valuing lifelong learning with an emphasis on serving individuals historically underrepresented in higher education. Founded in 1971, Excelsior meets students where they are — academically and geographically — removing obstacles to the educational goals of adults pursuing continuing education and degree completion. Our pillars include innovation, flexibility, academic excellence, and integrity. Learn more at excelsior.edu.

About Study.com

Study.com is a leading online education platform helping learners of all ages excel academically and close skills gaps. Study.com’s online courses, short animated video lessons, and study tools make learning simple for over 30 million students, teachers, and working professionals. Study.com was founded in 2002 and is a privately held company located in Mountain View, Calif. Learn more at http://www.study.com or download the mobile app from the iOS app store or Google Play.

Media Contact, Excelsior College: Alicia Jacobs, Sr. Manager Internal Communications & Public Relations, Ajacobs@excelsior.edu, (518) 410-4624

Media Contact, Study.com: Marshall Hampson, PR & Media Relations Manager, mhampson@study.com, (916) 749-0001

 

 

Fulfilling His Purpose

Posted on by Jenna Kerwin

Steve Carriere uses his public service degree to make a difference in emergency management

Steve Carriere’s interest in the humanitarian aspect of military service began when he joined the Coast Guard in 1989. For 27 years, he was involved in various emergency aid missions like responding to 9-11 and hurricane aftermath clean-up efforts. He found his calling in emergency management and after earning a Bachelor of Science from Excelsior in 2018 and having criminal justice as a major, he’s gone on to join and make a difference with Team Rubicon, a volunteer disaster relief organization serving others in times of crisis.

“I was like a ping pong ball just all over the place,” says Carriere, of Jacksonville, Florida, recalling trying to find his way after high school graduation. He decided to enlist with the Coast Guard as a deckhand out of Portsmouth, Virginia, and shortly after enlisting, went to school to become a quartermaster. He retired as a warrant officer in 2016.

One of the things Carriere did while with the Coast Guard was assist with search and rescue operations, which made for a perfect transition into his time with Team Rubicon. The veteran-run, nonprofit organization was set up 10 years ago by former Marines William McNulty and Jake Wood. Its main purpose is disaster response, but it also helps to get newly transitioned veterans back into the community through its volunteer opportunities. One of Carriere’s friends introduced him to the organization and he decided to sign up. His first deployment with Team Rubicon was in December 2018 to help with damage assessment and debris removal after Hurricane Michael hit Panama City and Mexico Beach. “From that point on, I was just immensely hooked by their mission,” he says.

Team Rubicon is involved in long-term mitigation and recovery and is at the forefront of disaster recovery efforts. Its goal, says Carriere, is to be the leading disaster relief organization in the country.

In addition to disaster response, volunteers for Team Rubicon rebuild homes or buildings that have an impact in the community. They’re also working to spread their efforts internationally; recently, they have deployed volunteers to help with the fires raging across Australia.

Veterans are a major segment of Team Rubicon’s volunteer force. Of the 90,000 people that have signed up to be volunteers, about 70 percent are veterans. “One of the things that veterans often talk about when they leave military services is that they’ve lost their sense of purpose, and what Team Rubicon has done is essentially given them back that sense of purpose,” says Carriere. He goes on to say that the organization is helpful to veterans suffering from PTSD and other traumatic illnesses. In fact, Carriere says, one of the founders, Wood, is a PTSD sufferer and admits that Team Rubicon’s mantra of serving others is beneficial to him. Carriere says, “Being able to help others is to be able to help yourself.”

Like his time with the Coast Guard, his time spent with Excelsior transferred into his time with Team Rubicon. “To tie all of that into my Excelsior experience, I took a class called introduction to emergency management… the course just really resonated with me and emergency management. So, you know, at that point I was like, you know, this is the direction I want to go; I want to be involved with Team Rubicon,” Carriere says. In fact, he says there were many aspects of Excelsior’s curriculum he realized he could relate to emergency management.

Now that he’s with Team Rubicon, Carriere feels he is fulfilling his purpose: helping people recover while sharing his experience and knowledge. He suggests others find their purpose, too, not necessarily their passion. He says, “You can have passion, but sometimes passion just turns into a waste of energy. But if you have a purpose, you can be more focused. Because after a while, people get bored of passion. But purpose is always is going to be a continual thing.”

 

Steve Carriere’s Path with Excelsior

Hearing about Excelsior College:

Carriere heard about Excelsior when it was called Regents College, but it wasn’t until 2003 when he attended the Chief Petty Officer Academy that he did a credit assessment for Excelsior and found out he could transfer in a significant number of credits. He wasn’t ready to take the leap then, but a few years later he decided to enroll.

Enrolling with Excelsior:

Carriere was on active duty in the Coast Guard when he enrolled in Excelsior in 2008. He began by taking liberal arts courses and earned an Associate in Science in Administrative and Management Studies in 2016. He spoke to an academic advisor about how many credits he would need for his bachelor’s degree and says, “I was really amazed at what I needed to knock out for my bachelor’s degree. I was pretty pleased that my experience could be taken in as a substitute for a lot of things I would have spent [time for] in classrooms; knowing that my experience was equivalent to that made me feel like I still had accomplished something pretty impressive.” After he retired in 2016, he kicked his degree plans into high gear and started studying full-time to earn his bachelor’s.

Time at Excelsior:

“I think what made it easier for me in some respects compared to what some of the other online students [experienced] is that being retired, I wasn’t working,” says Carriere, and adds that he had time to look over readings, assignments, and do research. Similar to other students, though, he also had to make time to take breaks from his schoolwork.

What’s Next:

Carriere says he is going to pursue a master’s degree in emergency management and disaster relief.

Best Interviewer & Interviewee Questions

Posted on by Tammy Spenziero

Asking good questions is the key to interviewing for both the interviewer and interviewee. Interviewers want to gain as much insight as possible during the interview process to determine if a candidate is the best fit. Interviewers want someone who will have insightful and comprehensive answers that showcase conversational skills and problem solving. Similarly, it’s important for interviewees to ask well-prepared questions so that potential employers can see how interested they are in the organization and how they might contribute to its success.

First, you can always count on the initial “Tell me something about yourself.” However, be prepared not to talk about every detail of your resume. A good question that avoids someone just reiterating what is already on that piece of paper would be, “Tell me something about you that is not on your resume.” This often brings out stories and unique experiences. If you are asked this question, itis a great way to express who you are, your values, pride in your work, and passion for your career.

Second, the prospective employer wants to hear from you about their organization and why you belong there. Count on them asking, “Why do you want to work here and what made you apply for the role?” A solid answer to this question shows you have researched and express interest in contributing to the success of the company, and you have ideas to share. For the interviewer, this question reveals what you are looking for in an employer as well as how familiar you are with the role.

Third, be prepared for the “What are your weaknesses” question and do not say you don’t have any! This question can be tricky because you do not want to go on about all the shortcomings you feel you have. Don’t forget, this is your time to shine and be humble when appropriate. This question really helps interviewers learn quite a bit about the candidate. Self-awareness is critical so do not think for too long about the perfect answer. Be prepared to share something that shows how you work to overcome and improve upon limitations without giving the impression that a weak point will hinder your ability to perform in the role.

It is equally as important for the interviewee to be prepared to ask questions. Typically, at the very end of the interview, the interviewee will be asked if they have any questions. Avoid asking yes or no questions and at this stage. It is not the right time to ask anything about salary or benefits; keep these questions completely out of your interview Therefore, do not ask anything about perks, compensation, or promotions. Equally as important, do not ask how well you did or if they want to hire you after the interview. The worst thing you can do is answer their question with a no because it shows a complete lack of preparation and interest, whether true or not. Always ask at least two questions at the end of your interview.

Some of the best questions to ask during this part of the interview relate to the next steps in the interview and hiring process. For instance, “What is the next step in the hiring process?” and “Do you have a timeline?” This will show your sincere interest in the position and is a great first question to ask before you get to anything more significant.

In addition, asking about some challenges or issues with competition will invoke a conversation on how you can add value to the organization with creative ways to problem solve and generate future success. For example, you could ask something like “What are the biggest struggles you feel will be faced in this role or for the organization as a whole that you have faced recently?” When you ask this be prepared with a game plan to help and share your ideas in such a way where they will see value in you because you are already thinking like a key player and problem solver in the organization. This may make it easier for them to envision you in this role as a person who has impressive ideas they will benefit from.

 

Tammy Spenziero is the director of career services at Excelsior College.

 

Excelsior College and OnlineDegree.com Partner to Improve College Access for Busy Working Adults

Posted on by Alicia Jacobs

Albany, N.Y. – Building upon decades of providing diverse and alternative pathways to degree completion for busy adults, Excelsior College has partnered with OnlineDegree.com to help more students take the first critical step toward higher education at a substantial cost savings. The partnership allows prospective students to take general education courses offered by OnlineDegree.com for free, and the credit earned may apply toward a degree at Excelsior. This would lower the overall cost of higher education while enhancing accessibility for those who need it most.

OnlineDegree.com is a free non-collegiate learning platform that prepares anyone for higher education. Students can take online self-paced courses on a variety of subjects, including business, criminal justice, psychology, biology, and others. OnlineDegree.com works with accredited universities across the United States where transfer credit can be awarded for successful completion of the courses. Higher education is often unfortunately perceived as cost prohibitive and inflexible for many working adults. This option provides students with the ability to receive free college credit toward their degree and on their own schedule.

“We’re committed to removing all of the hurdles that prevent adults from going back to college,” says Grant Aldrich, founder of OnlineDegree.com. “By working together with Excelsior, a leading institution serving adult students, we’re helping more busy people reach their dream of an affordable college education.”

Excelsior College is a regionally accredited, not-for-profit, online learning institution founded in 1971 focused on providing educational opportunity to adult learners. The College initially achieved its mission to provide adult learners with a flexible and affordable pathway to a credential through the assessment of learning and the aggregation of credit earned from inside and outside the classroom.

With the partnership, prospective students can earn up to 15 college-level courses—the equivalent of 44 semester credit hours—tuition-free through OnlineDegree.com and complete the remainder of their degree requirements with Excelsior College.

“We are excited to partner with OnlineDegree.com and to provide pathways to individuals who started college and did not have a chance to complete it. We hope this partnership makes it more accessible by removing financial obstacles to many students who desire to pursue their education,” stated James N. Baldwin, JD, EdD, president of Excelsior College.

For more information, please visit https://www.excelsior.edu/ondegree

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Media Contact:
Alicia Jacobs, ajacobs@excelsior.edu, 518-464-8531

Media Contact
Press Team, press@onlinedegree.com, 800-729-1317

ABOUT EXCELSIOR COLLEGE
Excelsior College (excelsior.edu) is a regionally accredited, not-for-profit online college focused on helping adults complete their degrees and advance their careers. The college contributes to the development of a diverse, educated, and career-ready society by valuing lifelong learning with an emphasis on serving individuals historically underrepresented in higher education. Founded in 1971, Excelsior meets students where they are — academically and geographically — removing obstacles to the educational goals of adults pursuing continuing education and degree completion. Our pillars include innovation, flexibility, academic excellence, and integrity. Learn more at excelsior.edu.

About OnlineDegree.com
On a mission to make higher education more affordable and accessible for everyone, OnlineDegree.com is a team of startup veterans and leading academics who believe everyone should have the ability to go to college. Through its free platform, students can test drive different courses and subjects on their own schedule, be better prepared for college-level coursework, and could receive college credits toward their degree at participating universities throughout the United States. Working adults have access to exclusive discounts and scholarships, as well as a bridge to start their path back to school https://www.onlinedegree.com/about-us/.

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7 Tips for Teaching Online

Posted on by William Trevor

When colleges and universities started to offer classes online during the 1990s, it was hailed as the future of learning, as many institutions rushed to offer distance learning using the power of the Internet. In those pioneering days, however, educators tried to just replicate the physical classroom with which they were familiar. While it was a praiseworthy idea, this approach often missed the point in terms of the unique challenges and opportunities that the online environment presented.

With the advent of the Coronavirus, instructors in colleges across the country, who are more used to teaching face-to-face, are now being required to teach online, many for the first time. As someone who has been in online education for over a decade, and who has taught on both sides of the Atlantic, I have a few useful pointers to offer to help you be a good online instructor:

  1. Visible Presence – Students need to know that you are a daily and regular presence in the online classroom, and while that does not mean you have to be immediately available, you should be present in the announcements you make, the clarity of the feedback you give, and the prompt way you answer emails and other messages.
  2. Context – Remember that your students are deprived of the body language that provides the nuance to your words in the physical classroom. While you do not need to exaggerate your words, remember that the praise you give, or the constructive criticism that you provide, will be conveyed through the written word alone. Be careful how you choose your words and structure your feedback. Read it back to yourself to see if the meaning you intended is the way the student is likely to interpret it.
  3. Video – Video technology is ubiquitous and even the least expensive laptops have a webcam.  Recording an initial video at the start of the course can provide a powerful way to connect with your students. Summarize the previous week’s lessons and provide an overview of what to expect for the week ahead but remember to offer a written version for accessibility purposes. Video feedback for assignments or at the mid-term can provide a powerful and personal connection to your students.
  4. Be Flexible – A military student once apologized to me because he was unable to submit an assignment because the Taliban had “taken out their communication tower.” I did not hesitate to provide an extension. Now I am not suggesting that you will have students facing such extreme situations, but remember that someone working remotely may be facing multiple challenges, juggling home, family, and work, all while trying to complete their studies.
  5. Offer Your Discipline Expertise – As an online instructor, it is often tempting to see your role as just grading assignments but be sure to add your disciplinary expertise and use current events; for example, show contemporary relevance of what you are teaching. While teaching a class in international economics recently, I was able to illustrate our discussions regarding NAFTA with the negotiations then taking place about the agreement.
  6. Office Hours and Synchronous Learning – Be sure to advertise your availability with regularly posted office hours. Don’t forget to also use the opportunity for synchronous learning; if you do not have a dedicated learning management system, like Blackboard or Canvas, you can use freely available messaging platforms, like Skype or Zoom. Remember that not all your students will be able to attend a synchronous session, so use the recording option that platforms like Zoom and Skype offer and make it available to everyone after the session.
  7. Be Inclusive – Remember that the online environment may cause those students who might normally shy away from interaction in the classroom easily hide. If students are posting in a discussion, try and ensure that you interact with everyone at some point. And if a student has not made a post, or submitted an assignment, reach out with a warm message to ask if everything is okay and offer help and guidance. While online learning can be an engaging and invigorating experience for many, it can be an isolating and friendless place for some.

These are just a few pointers from my years as an online instructor; there are many more. Overall, you should aim to be a visible and approachable presence in your classroom; someone who offers advice, support, and guidance to your learners, but also sensitive to the many challenges that the online learner may be facing. So, remember to customize your teaching and your assessments to such a unique environment. I hope this advice helps make your teaching experience as rewarding for you as it is for me, and hopefully it will be for your learners, too.

Teaching Courses in the Online Format

Posted on by Dale Emeagwali

The outbreak of COVID-19 has forced schools to close and forced instructors to rethink how to teach. We are in a transformative period in education. We are experiencing a paradigm shift on how we will educate the next generation. For generations, courses were taught face-to-face. Soon, courses might be exclusively taught online.

I taught face-to-face courses for many years and then transitioned to teaching courses online. When schools cancelled their classes due to the COVID-19 outbreak, my former colleagues asked for my advice on how to teach their courses online. My four questions to them were these: How would you show presence in the course? What content would be provided? How would you engage the students? How would you assess the students?

To the instructor, I say, first, take a deep breath.  Look on the bright side: You, the instructor, are an expert on the subject; you know what the students need to know. Technology is readily available. Think of this as an adventure from which you will gain experience in a new dimension, and learn and grow, and use your untapped creativity. Remember the end goal is the continuance of student learning during this disruption, and the completion of whatever pathway they were on.  You, will serve your students by helping them keep up the P.A.C.E.  Below, I provide a few tips about how you can enhance student learning, by showing Presence in the course, Assessing student learning of the Content, and helping our students achieve Excellence in the face of this national emergency.

Presence

Presence matters.  Students need to know that you are in the course. Student -faculty connection is an important part of student achievement. We know that emotion and cognition are entangled. A daily mix of announcements, messages, or personal clips, on a variety of topics, readily achieve this goal. You can easily connect with students when you speak to them on their level.  They will feel that you are there on the journey with them.

Assessment

Students need to demonstrate they have consumed the content. How will you know? This can be tricky.  This is where you need to be creative. You are operating in a different dimension now. My classes include a mixture of automated quizzes and homework questions to test their knowledge of what was being discussed in class or in the readings.

Content

Make sure your course is interactive and interesting to engage your students and keep them wanting more. Be sure your lesson plan matches the syllabus so there’s no confusion, either. Allow for student choice topics and assignments, like picking to discuss current events. Mix it up. Students tend to participate and learn better when they have a choice or option. Find vlogs, videos, and websites that spark creative discussions. Use the free resources available to you via your institutions such as open educational resources, the library, career center, etc.

Excellence

When your course outline falls into place, everything else does, too. By creating interactive content, putting a successful assessment system in place, and being supportive of your students, you and your students can both succeed.

Developing Guidelines for Evaluating Work for Online Courses: A Primer

Posted on by André Foisy

Due to the recent COVID-19 scare, many faculty have been quickly migrating in-person and hybrid courses to entirely online versions. I’m an ardent proponent for the use of rubrics, written guides for assessing student work, and in this blog post, I will provide some practical advice for individual faculty on how to incorporate grading rubrics into online courses.

Well-designed rubrics provide many benefits: they can help clarify performance expectations, encourage better student performance, provide students with better feedback on their work, and make grading more accurate, consistent, and efficient.

There are numerous types and categories of rubrics, but for our purposes here, we’ll discuss how to create an analytic rubric to grade students’ work. Analytic rubrics document standards of student performance as a grid: the top row of the grid defines the performance levels, the left side of the grid vertically displays attributes of student work, and the boxes in between define student performance at each level. These boxes can be embedded in online courses and associated with specific assignments.

Linda Sukie identifies the following six steps to develop a rubric in her book, “Handbook on Measurement, Assessment, and Evaluation in Higher Education”

Step 1: Identify the rubric’s purposes.

Rubrics are useful for assessing student performance on all different types of assignments or projects. However, if your assignment is focused on assessing students on their ability to recall information, a different type of assessment, such as a multiple-choice test, might be better.

 If you’re just now moving your course to an online version then it’s likely you will be seeking to utilize rubrics for evaluating student learning, an evaluation which will result in a grade. If so, ask yourself:

How much of a student’s grade will this assignment represent?

Step 2: Articulate clear learning outcomes for the assignment and explicate them into traits.

If you have already created an assignment, then what are the outcomes that you seek to assess with the rubric? What are attributes of these outcomes? For instance, if your outcome is to assess student writing, then you might identify a few key attributes of effective student writing on this assignment.  

 List each attribute as a noun or noun phrase. Omit any attribute which is not essential to the assignment. List these attributes vertically along the left side of your grid.

Step 3: Identify and label performance levels.

The grid headings will list performance levels. I suggest utilizing between 3-5 levels for each attribute. For instance, if you have three levels then you might title them: below expectations, meets expectations, and above expectations.

You might associate points for each level. If so, then consider how you distribute these points. You might allocate more points to different attributes which are more essential to the goals of the assignment.

Step 4: Create descriptions of each trait, at each performance level.

During this step, faculty fill in each box in the grid for each attribute and performance level. Descriptions, ideally, provide students with specific information about how to improve weaknesses in their performance. These should be crafted according to your professional judgement. An easy place to start on this step is to articulate a description for minimally adequate performance on an attribute. Next, fill in the other performance levels.

Step 5: Develop or review the assignment.

Now that you’ve drafted your rubric, look at the assignment prompt for students. Does it require students to perform work that is not identified in the rubric? If so, then it might be best to revisit the rubric to better articulate expectations.

Step 6: Test and revise the rubric.

Well-developed rubrics are typically developed iteratively over time. Before embedding a rubric in an online course, you might first test the rubric out on past student work. Once you have tested the rubric, consider how it might be improved; could the performance descriptions be clearer? Are the points allocated according to the most important attributes for the assignment? Finally, revise the rubric to make it more useful to provide students with a grade and feedback on their performance.

See the sample analytic rubric below worth 35 points on an assignment. It was created using the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Oral Communications VALUE Rubric.

  

Table 1: Analytic Rubric Example

Oral Communication Value Rubric
Attributes Above Expectations Meets Expectations Below Expectations Points
Organization Organizational pattern (specific

introduction and conclusion, sequenced

material within the body, and transitions)

is clearly and consistently observable

within the presentation.

 Organizational pattern (specific

introduction and conclusion, sequenced

material within the body, and transitions)

is intermittently observable within the

presentation.

 Organizational pattern (specific

introduction and conclusion, sequenced

material within the body, and transitions)

is not observable within the presentation.

 10
Language Language choices are thoughtful and

generally support the effectiveness of the

presentation. Language in presentation is

appropriate to audience.

 Language choices are mundane and

commonplace and partially support the

effectiveness of the presentation.

Language in presentation is appropriate to

audience.

 Language choices are unclear and

minimally support the effectiveness of the

presentation. Language in presentation is

not appropriate to audience.

 15
Delivery Delivery techniques (posture, gesture, eye

contact, and vocal expressiveness) make

the presentation interesting, and speaker

appears comfortable.

 Delivery techniques (posture, gesture, eye

contact, and vocal expressiveness) make

the presentation understandable, and

speaker appears tentative.

 Delivery techniques (posture, gesture, eye

contact, and vocal expressiveness) detract

from the understandability of the

presentation, and speaker appears

uncomfortable.

 10
Total       35

 

 Applying Your Rubric

Once these steps are complete, you are ready to use your rubric in a course. Learning Management System Communities are wonderful resources to provide information on how to embed rubrics into courses and assignments. For example, you might do a web search for “Canvas Community Rubrics,” or “Blackboard Community Rubrics.” These communities are a rich resource of information on many facets of the online teaching community. I have found community members to be extremely helpful with questions that arise about specific systems. For other inspiration, I suggest you also search for free rubric building tools online.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Procrastination and Ways to Avoid It

Posted on by Emily Miller

Procrastination is the avoidance of completing or even beginning a task or assignment that needs to be accomplished. Another aspect of procrastination is seeking out and actually participating in events or things that you find enjoyable to avoid those tasks that need to be done. Procrastination is common, especially among those who are trying to complete a degree program. Remember, pursuing a degree of higher education doesn’t usually come easy and takes some concerted effort to achieve.

Here are some ways to help you avoid procrastination or catch it before it gets out of control:

  1. Track your excuses and hold yourself responsible.

Observe when you’re making excuses and what those excuses are. You need to own your actions and hold yourself responsible for when you make excuses.

  1. Turn big projects into a bunch of smaller ones

Break larger projects into smaller pieces that aren’t as overwhelming. Several smaller tasks are easier to achieve over a longer period of time instead of trying to complete a large, intense project in a shorter time period.

  1. Trick yourself and make a deal with yourself

When working on a project and procrastination rears its ugly head, find a small, maybe even enjoyable, piece of the project that can be accomplished quickly or with little effort. Focus on that piece for a while or complete it before attempting to go back to the more difficult pieces of the project. Make a deal with yourself that if you work hard for a set amount of time (15-20 minutes), you can take a break. While it might cause the project to be completed at a slower pace, it will show progress which will help keep the procrastination at bay.

  1. Set realistic goals

Don’t set yourself up for failure by setting unrealistic goals. Consider all aspects of your project or paper and the other things you have going on in your life and create goals and time frames that are attainable.

  1. Be aware of your environment

Are there distractions, such as family obligations or noisy housemates, that are going to encourage procrastination? If so, try to find another environment, such as a coffee shop or local library, to work on your project.

  1. Practice self-discipline

Sometimes you need to bear down and push through the desire to push an assignment off.

  1. Reward Yourself

Be sure to reward yourself when you have accomplished a task…big or small. It doesn’t need to be an elaborate reward, just something to help you stay motivated and continue to make progress on that particular project or task, or future ones.

Study Plans: Why They’re Important and How to Use Them

Posted on by Emily Miller

What is a Study Plan?

A study plan is a chart or schedule that allows you to block out time needed each day for well-defined learning activities, goals, and routine daily tasks. It’s especially helpful when trying to make time between your work life, social life, and other responsibilities to do your schoolwork.

Benefits of a Study Schedule

A study schedule offers numerous benefits that can enhance academic performance and overall learning experience. It helps in managing time effectively, promotes consistency and discipline, reduces stress, and aids in identifying and addressing knowledge gaps. Ultimately, it leads to increased productivity and improved academic performance.

How to Create a Study Plan

Everyone’s study plan looks different. Here is one way that you could create a study plan.

  1. Create a time chart of your current activities to see where and how you are spending your time in a typical week.
  2. List all the courses or topics that need to be studied and establish your study goals.
  3. Looking back at the time chart that you created, find blocks of time that you could use for studying. Even blocks of 20-30 minutes can be very useful. Using a calendar or planner, mark blocks of time for work, personal time, family time, and for your different courses and topics.

 

What’s the Best Way to Use My Study Plan?

To make the most of your study plan, it’s essential to approach it strategically. By incorporating these effective techniques, you can optimize your learning and achieve your academic goals more efficiently.

Take Study Breaks:

Remember to take brief breaks to stretch, walk around, or grab a snack.  You need to step away from your studying once in a while so you don’t get to stressed.

Switch Up Your Study Routine:

Change things up by switching between subject or study techniques. Change study locations periodically. Vary study techniques by course content (subject).

Create Mini-Deadlines:

While your syllabus should provide you with assignment due dates, you should make a habit of creating your own deadlines leading up to those due dates.  Use these mini-deadlines to complete smaller pieces of your assignment as you work until the final product due date.

Fully Commit to Studying:

When you set time aside to study, be committed to studying. Focus on the task at hand and try your best to avoid distractions. One way to have successful study sessions is to create a beneficial environment. Choose a quiet, well-lit area that is free from interruptions and have all your supplies and resources on-hand.

Tackle the Most Important Content First

At the beginning of a study session,  determine which content is the most important. Tackle that content first. You want to make sure you’re getting the most out of every study session, and the best way to ensure that is to make sure you’re covering the content that is going to impact your learning the most.

Use Every Spare Moment

It can be challenging, as a busy adult with a huge array of responsibilities pulling you in every direction, to find the time to study. Use every spare moment you can to study, even if it’s for only five or ten minutes.  Flashcards work great for quick study moments. They are convenient, compact, and easily fit into a pocket, bag, of even in the console of your car.

Academic Integrity in an Online Environment

Posted on by Excelsior Staff

I can only imagine what faculty and administrators at on ground schools must be going through right now having to move hundreds of course sections online with only a few day’s notice. Having to quickly shift to the online environment can be stressful and present numerous challenges to these faculty who are used to teaching students face to face and having one-on-one discussions with students. Dealing with academic integrity issues has the potential to generate even more anxiety for these already stressed teachers.

Faculty who are new to online teaching may be concerned that students will be more likely to cheat in an online class than in an in-person class. According to George Watson and James Sottile’s. “Cheating in the Digital Age: Do Students Cheat More in Online Courses?” research confirms that students are no more likely to cheat in an online course than in a face-to-face course, although students in online courses are more likely to cheat on online tests or quizzes by getting answers from each other. In his article, “Let Your Students Cheat on Exams,” Wes Maciejewski suggests that we “let” students cheat by allowing them to use the resources that technology makes available and focus on modifying existing summative assessments to ask deeper and more conceptual questions. In the current situation, if faculty are able to roll out their online course a week at a time through the end of the semester, they may be able to redesign at least some assessments to take advantage of the learning management system (LMS) and other technologies and ask the students probing questions that will challenge them to think about the subject at hand. Assessments designed to encourage students to come up with their own topic, explore their own interests, or build on work they have previously done in class are also less likely to result in cheating.

Try as we may to entice students with thought-provoking and creative assessments, some of them will cheat or plagiarize. When this happens, you can generally handle academic integrity violations in online courses using the same processes that are used for in-person courses with the major difference being you will not be able to talk to offending students face-to-face. Communication about questionable writing or suspicious test-taking activities will typically have to occur via email, telephone, or video conferencing.

Written conversations through email should be carefully crafted as they may come back to haunt you when a student is struggling to defend themselves. A phone call or video conference with a student can be an effective way to communicate particularly when the responses to a few questions may clear things up. Asking a student to explain something they wrote in a paper can be an effective way to determine if they actually authored the work themselves. Most LMS’s provide a video conferencing tool such as Collaborate or Zoom and once faculty have moved their courses to the online environment, it would be wise to spend a few minutes becoming familiar with the communication tools that are available.

Less experienced college students may not always be aware they have cheated and the conversation with them may be more of a teachable moment than one with a punitive outcome. Forgetting to reference a source or using material they wrote for another paper are common examples of this. Providing rubrics is a way to make sure the students have a clear understanding of not only what they are supposed to do in an assignment but also how the assignment will be graded. It is important to reinforce messaging about academic integrity with every assignment.
This is also a great time to take advantage of the technology available to help identify cheating and plagiarism. Products like Turnitin Feedback Studio and the recently released Authorship Investigate can help the investigation of suspicious papers and identify those that may not have been written by the student (contract cheating) by comparing and analyzing meta-data from the paper against other work submitted to Turnitin by the student.

In summary, the same standards for cheating and plagiarism should be maintained and enforced in the online class that are used in the classroom. Effective and consistent communication with students is critical as well as communication between faculty and department chairs or other administration who support academic integrity issues. It’s important for department chairs and administrators to clearly define the roles of the online faculty member and make sure they know when they need to bring their department chair or other support staff into the conversation with the student.

Bettering Herself

Posted on by Jenna Kerwin

Melissa Burger pursues higher education to improve her and her family’s lives

Full-time student, mother of four, and busy wife Melissa Burger, of Michigan, took advantage of her military benefits to return to school with Excelsior College to pursue her higher education. While going to school for an associate degree in liberal arts, which she earned in 2017, and a bachelor’s in liberal arts, earned in 2018, Burger became interested in cybersecurity from her IT courses. She has since decided to pursue a master’s in cybersecurity with Excelsior to challenge herself and increase opportunities for future employment.

Burger didn’t have plans to join the military, that is, until she acquired student loan debt from attending traditional brick-and-mortar colleges. A friend introduced her to the military’s intelligence community. Burger became interested in becoming a linguist and, after doing some research, decided the Air Force was the best place for her. From 2000-2004, Burger was a cryptologic language analyst, specializing in Arabic. Though the specific details of her job are top-secret, Burger was responsible for translating, transcribing, and analyzing messages.

Burger says she is driven to finish what she starts and completing her education is no different, which she says, kept being pushed aside for other life priorities. She supported her husband while he attended medical school and cared for her children—one with special needs—putting her education on the back burner. “One day, I realized that I was trying to create an incredible future for everyone else but had forgotten that I could make their future better by bettering myself,” she says. Burger heard about Excelsior from a friend and immediately contacted the admissions office.

The process of applying and submitting the required documents was simple, Burger says. “Excelsior evaluated my credits and transferred over the majority of them, including those that were obtained in my military training,” she says, adding that she also used her GI Bill® to cover many of her expenses.

Burger decided to pursue liberal arts for her associate and bachelor’s degrees because of the broad foundation it provides. “I felt like it afforded me the opportunity to develop a broad knowledge base that would allow me several avenues to pursue,” she says. After taking some IT courses, she discovered how exciting the cyber field is and decided it would be enjoyable and challenging to learn something that would be out of her element. Shortly after she earned her bachelor’s in 2018, she re-enrolled in Excelsior’s Master of Science in Cybersecurity program.

Excelsior’s online platform and flexible course structure has proven to be perfect for Burger’s studying habits. “Online learning allows me to continue my education in a setting that is conducive to my family’s lifestyle and needs,” she says. Burger’s family has been understanding and supportive of her education. Sometimes, she says, she has to take her books with her on their outings or reschedule fun events. “I am grateful for the sacrifices [my family] has made so that I can finally check off this goal,” she says. Excelsior faculty members have also been helpful in answering Burger’s questions and supporting her. She also relies on her classmates when she needs help with coursework or navigating online learning.

Burger has also taken advantage of Excelsior’s welcoming online community by joining the Excelsior College student chapter of the National Cybersecurity Student Association. She says she has engaged with experienced students and mentors while part of the club and been able to learn from videos, documents, and training that she wouldn’t normally have been aware of. “I have been able to gain skills and learn techniques that I would never have had the opportunity to learn or apply further in the classroom,” she says. She has also been able to join with the chapter as it participates bi-annually in the National Cyber League competitions, competing against other colleges to solve real-life cybersecurity problems.

The cybersecurity practice is good for Burger, who plans to work in the cybersecurity field, though she isn’t sure quite where she wants to land. She is researching and creating a plan on how to obtain further certifications to prove she is prepared to work in the cybersecurity arena. She is happy she made the move to pursue her education and encourages others—especially other veterans—to do the same. It’s important to make time for your future now, says Burger, adding, “You are worth it, and there are many people, including Excelsior’s Veterans Center, the ever-so-helpful library staff, and your academic advisor who will support you. You are worth a better paying job, more self-confidence, that promotion at work, and so much more.”

GI Bill® is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). More information about education benefits offered by VA is available at the official U.S. government Web site at benefits.va.gov/gibill/.

 

New Initiative at Excelsior College Will Help Stopout Students Complete Their Degree

Posted on by Alicia Jacobs

Partnership with ReUp Education combines coaching, technology to help students return to college

Embargoed until March 4, 2020.

Albany, NY —  Excelsior College recently launched a program designed to help stopout students—those who have some college experience but no degree—return to school and graduate. Through a partnership with social impact startup ReUp Education, the initiative provides personalized support for stopout students through a combination of predictive analytics and hands-on coaching and mentorship.

James N. Baldwin, president of Excelsior College, stated, “Excelsior College is a regionally accredited, not-for-profit distance learning institution founded in 1971. We have a long history of helping students from all backgrounds not just complete their degree but also chart pathways to success after graduation. This collaboration is the next step in our ongoing effort to help adult learners realize higher education’s promise of social and economic mobility and prosperity.”

According to recent research from the National Student Clearinghouse, more than 36 million Americans have some college experience but have not completed their degree. This trend has significant implications for students’ financial well-being over time: a college degree translates to an average of $1 million additional earnings over a lifetime, and college graduates are half as likely to be unemployed when compared to those with only a high school degree.

Excelsior College’s new initiative was specifically developed to provide support for students who have some college, many of whom are over the age of 25 and balancing work and family commitments outside of their studies. Proprietary technology developed by ReUp Education will enable a team of coaches to conduct direct outreach to students and support them through the re-enrollment process, as well as provide guidance throughout their college experience as they pursue their degree.

“It’s increasingly clear that non-traditional students are now the majority of higher education’s student population,” said Sarah Horn, cofounder and CEO of ReUp Education. “This is about bringing together technology and mentorship to help colleges re-engage with these learners in ways that reflect—and respond to—their unique needs and challenges.”

ReUp Education helps colleges and universities engage and re-enroll stopout students through a unique blend of predictive analytics technology, data, and personalized coaching. Once students have returned to school, ReUp provides ongoing support to foster personal accountability, encouragement, and guidance to equip students with the tools to persist and succeed. This approach provides a continuous support mechanism for every returning student, including first-generation and underrepresented students, who are disproportionately more likely to not have access to an effective support system for navigating college.

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ReUp Education Media Contact: Ben Watsky, Watsky@whiteboardadvisors.com

 Excelsior College Media Contact: Alicia Jacobs, ajacobs@excelsior.edu   518-464-8531

 About ReUp Education

ReUp Education is the expert in understanding, engaging, and re-enrolling stopout students. Through its unique blend of data, technology, and specialized coaching, ReUp has engaged more than 150,000 stopout students across a wide range of universities and helped re-enroll over 8,700 students. ReUp is based in San Francisco, and is funded by leading education and social impact investors, including Entangled Ventures, University Ventures, Serious Change Investments, and The Impact Engine.

ABOUT EXCELSIOR COLLEGE

Excelsior College (excelsior.edu) is a regionally accredited, not-for-profit online college focused on helping adults complete their degrees and advance their careers. The college contributes to the development of a diverse, educated, and career-ready society by valuing lifelong learning with an emphasis on serving individuals historically underrepresented in higher education. Founded in 1971, Excelsior meets students where they are — academically and geographically — removing obstacles to the educational goals of adults pursuing continuing education and degree completion. Our pillars include innovation, flexibility, academic excellence, and integrity. Learn more at excelsior.edu.