Ad for online degree

So, I was doing my typical morning ritual--no, not that!!!--of reading the newspapers online, and I was at the Statesman Journal site where I saw an ad for .... yes, online degree programs.

It was from some outfit ARALifestyle.com, and it said "Top universities partner to offer online teaching credentials." Well, it does not take me much to become curious, and clicking that ad took me to this site. Here is an excerpt:

"The partnership between Ashford University and Rio Salado College Online offers aspiring teachers an accelerated opportunity to fulfill their dreams," said Ashford University Chancellor Jane McAuliffe. "By combining a bachelor's degree and a teacher preparation program, Ashford and Rio Salado are providing students with a truly unique opportunity."

I hadn't heard of Ashford until this ad. Even more curiosity. Turns out that it is located in Iowa. So, this university in Iowa is partnering with Rio Salado, which is in Arizona, for an online degree program. Of course, Rio Salado is quite well known in the online world, and the team that went to the conference also got to see that college's president in person, when she was a panelist.

Hmmm .... wait a minute. Isn't the teacher ed program a major part of our business here? I suppose we can always adopt a Alfred E. Neuman philosophy: "What, me worry?" :-)

Newspapers are dying. Regional universities next?

A couple of weeks ago, Mary B. sent me a link to an op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor, where the author, a professor of history and education at NYU. He made a good argument for how academics can rescue the dying newspaper industry.

I suppose newspapers and higher-education is now a trending topic; the latest Chronicle has a neat opinion piece that explores some of the underlying similarities between these two industries:

Newspapers are dying. Are universities next? The parallels between them are closer than they appear. Both industries are in the business of creating and communicating information. Paradoxically, both are threatened by the way technology has made that easier than ever before.

Of course, my first thought was, well, hey I blogged about this a couple of months ago! If only people listened to me :-)
Anyway, he then warns about how regional public universities (hey, isn't ours one?!!!) might be in trouble if they did not look ahead:

Institutions that specialize in their mission and customer base are still well positioned in this new environment, much as The Chronicle is doing a lot better than the Rocky Mountain News (RIP). Tony liberal-arts colleges and other selective private institutions will do fine, as will public universities that garner a lot of external research support and offer the classic residential experience to the children of the upper middle class.

Less-selective private colleges and regional public universities, by contrast — the higher-education equivalents of the city newspaper — are in real danger. Some are more forward-looking than others. Lamar University, a public institution in Beaumont, Tex., recently began offering graduate courses in education administration — another traditional cash cow — through a for-profit online provider, with the two organizations splitting the profits. It's an innovative move and probably a sign of things to come. But the public university still looks like something of a middleman here — and in the long run, the Internet doesn't treat middlemen kindly. To survive and prosper, universities need to integrate technology and teaching in a way that improves the learning experience while simultaneously passing the savings on to students in the form of lower prices.

I wonder what a typical faculty (other than the ones in this group) at WOU thinks about such issues, and how much they see or do not see online teaching/learning at least as an important hedge against that same deathly fate that even the mighty NY Times is struggling with.