MOOC on Universal Design in February

Accessibility: Designing and Teaching Courses for All Learners is a free 6-week professional development course available that will help you gain a better understanding of accessibility as a civil rights issue and develop the knowledge and skills you need to design learning experiences that promote inclusive learning environments.

During this six-week course, you’ll learn how to:

●     Recognize and address challenges faced by students with disabilities related to access, success, and completion.

●     Articulate faculty and staff roles in reducing barriers for students with disabilities.

●     Apply the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in designing accessible learning experiences.

●     Analyze the benefits of Backward Design when developing learning experiences.

●     Use Section 508 standards and WCAG 2.0 guidelines to create accessible courses.

●     Determine which tools and techniques are appropriate based on course content.

You will have the opportunity to earn badges that recognize your mastery of these competencies.

Audience: Anyone may enroll and participate in the MOOC. It has been designed for faculty and staff in higher education at any type or level of institution.

Why take the Access MOOC? Watch this short video to find out! (Audio described version)

Access MOOC begins on February 22^nd

Next steps:

1.       Register at Canvas Network

2.       Share and follow the conversation on Twitter using #AccessMOOC

3.       Follow our Access MOOC Facebook Page

The course is a collaborative effort of faculty and staff from SUNY Empire State College and SUNY Buffalo State College, funded by a SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grant.

NPR Airs "Paying for College" Series

NPR aired a piece by Eric Westervelt on 25 March titled "Decoding College Financial Aid" (8:18) in their "Paying for College" series.

Many high school seniors are hearing from colleges about admissions and financial aid. Scott Juedes, director of Student Financial Services at Wellesley College, gives tips on decoding aid offers.

A companion text piece "Some Common Misconceptions About Paying For College" lays out some useful information the reporter learned while doing the story:

In reporting on students navigating the maze of college costs and financial aid, I kept running into misconceptions about paying for a degree. Here are some of the most common ones: 

Low-income students get most of their college financial aid needs met and rich kids don't have to worry, so it's mainly the middle class that gets squeezed. 

It's a common misperception and "it's simply not true," says Lauren Asher, president of The Institute for College Access and Success, an independent, nonprofit research and advocacy group. Take Pell Grants, which go to low- and moderate-income families. A majority of Pell recipients are families with incomes under $50,000 a year. Those students "are much more likely to have loans and to owe more when they graduate from a four-year school than all other students," she says.

Read more at NPR.org 

Related Stories on Financial Aid and Cost of College

• "Maze Of College Costs And Aid Programs Traps Some Families," Eric Westervelt (7:31)
• "How The Cost Of College Went From Affordable To Sky-High," Claudio Sanchez (6:49)

Experimenting with Price Cuts in Higher Education

I've long been an advocate of cutting tuition and getting away from the wrong-headed "luxury-price signals quality product" logic so common in lower and middle tier higher education. There are many reasons not to "just do it," but more than a few things in favor of the idea should at least motivate serious discussion:

• honesty in pricing might better reflect institutional values;
• some prospective students never consider a school, knowing sticker price is out of their reach; the current system discriminates against such "humble realists";
• institutions should grapple with the fact that full-pay families might not be willing to participate in the institution's redistribution scheme if they thought (knew) about it;
• it is not clear there is any dis-interested, scientifically valid research on the implications;
• revenue models rarely take into account the cost of administering Byzantine financial aid schemes;
• some institutions are unfairly labeled "elitist" based on sticker price alienating people to whom their mission otherwise would appeal;
• tuition discounting is one of many opacity practices that undermine administrators', board members', and faculty members' capacity to effectively monitor the economics of their institutions.

Read More

See also

• Ry Rivard. Paper (Tuition) Cuts."  Inside Higher Ed September 16, 2013
• Ellen Berman. "Higher education faces tuition disruption: Experimenting with price at a time when higher education is being viewed as a commodity." University Business, November 2013
• Ruth Simon Connect. "Colleges Cut Prices by Providing More Financial Aid." Wall Street Journal May 6, 2013

Supporting Former Foster Youth Through College

from the New York Times...

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Mills public policy graduate Nicole Hudley wrote her 2009 thesis on educational outcomes for former foster youth.