Masters Of Education
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“‘Good’ is not fantastic more than enough.” UNC Board of Governors sharpens concentration on literacy instruction
Once a week, a group of nine-year-old students get up from their desks, form a line
and walk down the hall to the gymnasium at Jackson Elementary in Greeley. There they’ll
begin a short game of tag for less than 10 minutes to get the blood flowing and then
jump right into a fitness activity. The activity is not a typical, run-around-the-basketball-court
kind of workout though, the students participate in a card-game-turned-exercise circuit.
“We play UNO Fitness,” said UNC alumnus and physical education teacher at Jackson
Elementary, Jioni Reliford ‘12.
For nearly a decade, Reliford has been finding new, impactful ways to incorporate
health into his students’ days. For example, in UNO Fitness, Reliford created a board
explaining what the meaning of each UNO card has transformed into. The ‘skip’ card
means skip one lap, any blue card means head over to the jump ropes, a red card means
go to the curl-up station and so on.
Fourth grade students at Jackson Elementary playing UNO Fitness
“We’re really trying to make these fitness activities fun in a way that the students
are not really relating it to working out,” Reliford said.
After the fitness activity comes a lesson focus where a sport or activity is highlighted.
Recently, it was hockey. Reliford first showed his students a short video of a young
female playing the sport to encourage everyone to participate and explain the terminology.
“It gives them background information. We have a lot of students in Greeley from different
countries and they may have never heard of hockey,” Reliford said. “So, if I start
by saying ‘we’re going to work with the puck’ they’ll have no clue.”
Reliford’s goal is to incorporate life lessons into his physical education class plans
to go along with movement, heart rate and fitness zones. He even incorporates literacy
learning when he asks his students to spell ‘dribble’ while dribbling a soccer ball
or hockey puck. Reliford learned the importance of well-rounded health and how to
teach it while he was attending the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) as a Sport
and Exercise Science student.
“A lot of people have the stigma that we’re in here just playing dodgeball, but it
was amazing at UNC because we had outdoor adventure courses and different tactical
game approaches that taught us physical education is much more than that,” Reliford
said.
Jioni Reliford teaching one of his fourth grade students hockey skills
Jioni Reliford showing one of his fourth grade classes a video on hockey
Fourth grade students at Jackson Elementary playing UNO Fitness
Fourth grade students at Jackson Elementary participating in a quick warm-up
As a teacher preparation institute, those in UNC’s College of Natural and Health Sciences
take pride in pushing for more physical education classes to continue to evolve like
Reliford’s, though there is an uphill battle to overcome.
Regardless of his hard work and thoughtful curriculum, Reliford’s students only have
physical education once a week, a schedule many experts feel is not enough to combat
increased rates of childhood obesity or provide necessary benefits to cognitive ability
and brain development.
“We’re one of only four states in the nation that has no requirement for physical
education K-12,” said Jaimie McMullen, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Sport and Exercise Science.
McMullen is one of many faculty members working toward more consistent state-wide
physical education policies.
“Right now, some kids will get physical education every third day because it will
rotate with art and music or once every six days,” McMullen said. “In some Colorado
middle school cases though, students never take physical education.”
McMullen says this depends on how a school frames its electives. If students are allowed
two electives per trimester for example, and a student chooses to take band and a
foreign language class, which are full-year electives, there is no time left for physical
education.
“So, in six through eighth grade when their bodies are changing, they never learn
about health, wellness, teamwork and communication,” McMullen said.
McMullen is also a member of the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE Colorado).
The organization recently advocated for a piece of legislation that had bi-partisan
support, that will determine how beneficial quality physical education is for students.
The pilot program is called Health and Wellness Through Comprehensive Physical Education.
McMullen, her colleagues and doctoral students are currently two years into the evaluation
of the program.
According to the Colorado State Health Department, more than 1 in 4 children in Colorado were overweight or obese in 2013.
In 2014, the Colorado Child Health Survey found only 45.2{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of Colorado kids, aged
5 through 14, exercise for 60 minutes every day.
“It will look at what will happen when schools are able to implement what we determined
to be quality physical education, which is physical education taken daily, or at least
225 minutes a week for middle schools and 150 minutes a week at the elementary level,”
McMullen said.
The legislation states, not only does physical education instruction reduce childhood
obesity and foster a lifetime commitment to physical activity and healthy lifestyles,
but a 2007 study by the Institute of Medicine found that physical activity also has
a positive impact on cognitive ability and brain development, insomnia, depression,
anxiety and avoiding tobacco use.
Rep. Mary Young visiting one of Jioni Reliford’s class at Jackson Elementary
Until results from the evaluation are released next year, McMullen and SHAPE Colorado
are working to keep this topic running through legislators’ minds. They invited Representative
Mary Young, who is the vice chair of the House Education Committee, to Jackson Elementary
to witness the impressive practices Reliford is applying in his physical education
classes.
“As a master teacher, [Jioni Reliford’s] physical education class is a symphony of
physical activity, social interaction and cooperation interwoven with reading and
math literacy. Who would have thought tag, Uno Fitness and learning how to use a hockey
stick would achieve those goals?” Young asked.
The recognition of Reliford’s dedication to providing quality physical education is
what McMullen was hoping for, but the race continues.
“If every teacher was like Jioni Reliford, we’d be in a much better place, but his
students don’t see him every day, so imagine how great it would be if they did,” McMullen
said.
Beyond the K-12 classroom, UNC faculty, staff and students have been invested in improving
the quality of physical education and physical activity opportunities for K-12 students
in Colorado and beyond through their Active Schools Institute (ASI). Part of the only physical education graduate program in the state and housed
in UNC’s School of Sport and Exercise Science, the ASI conducts research and community
engaged scholarship in the area of school physical activity promotion. And they recently
formed a strategic partnership with a national organization called Active Schools.
“The movement was established as part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign. UNC and I have been involved since early on,” Director of UNC’s Active Schools Institute and Associate Professor in the School of Sport and Exercise Science, Brian Dauenhauer, Ph.D., said. “Currently, I serve on their strategic advisory council, so being in a leadership
role with the organization allowed us to already have those connections in place.
This strategic partnership sort of built off of those relationships.”
The goal of the two-year partnership, which is set to conclude in summer 2023, is
to help the national organization transition into its next version, informally referred
to as Active Schools 2.0.
“One of the key features of the 2.0 version is that it’s very much directed by evidence-based
practice, with the idea being that we take what we know from the research, and we
help schools, teachers, and administrators put it into action in a way that aligns
with what the evidence says really impacts kids the most,” Dauenhauer said.
UNC doctoral students were brought on board to do some of the research and to help
synthesize what the evidence says about school-based physical activity.
“We’re pulling information out of different articles on what is a promising practice,”
said Lisa Paulson, a doctoral student in UNC’s Physical Education and Physical Activity
Leadership program.
“Physical inactivity amongst youth is one of the most troublesome issues,” added Taemin
Ha, who is also a doctoral student in UNC’s Physical Education and Physical Activity
Leadership program. “We need to keep the conversation of how important physical activity
is going and release more evidence, which will hopefully result in more kids becoming
more active and have a happier life.”
The UNC Active Schools Institute is planning on co-hosting a virtual conference this
August to introduce the field to the new Active Schools framework and will host an
in-person conference in summer 2023 to officially launch Active Schools 2.0.
“We intend to provide professional development for folks and create a culture of what
active schools can look like,” Paulson said. “Our primary goal is to educate people
and build a community so kids can have more opportunities for physical activity.”
— written by Sydney Kern and Alani Casiano, a junior English major at UNC
Newswise — After a 7 days, a team of 9-year-aged learners get up from their desks, form a line and wander down the corridor to the gymnasium at Jackson Elementary in Greeley. There they’ll commence a small sport of tag for fewer than 10 minutes to get the blood flowing and then leap appropriate into a exercise exercise. The exercise is not a regular, run-around-the-basketball-court form of training while, the learners take part in a card-recreation-turned-work out circuit.
“We perform UNO Health and fitness,” stated UNC alumnus and bodily education and learning teacher at Jackson Elementary, Jioni Reliford ‘12.
For practically a ten years, Reliford has been acquiring new, impactful ways to integrate wellbeing into his students’ days. For example, in UNO Health, Reliford produced a board outlining what the this means of every single UNO card has reworked into. The ‘skip’ card usually means skip a single lap, any blue card signifies head in excess of to the leap ropes, a red card suggests go to the curl-up station and so on.
“We’re actually making an attempt to make these health and fitness functions enjoyment in a way that the college students are not actually relating it to doing the job out,” Reliford explained.
Soon after the health and fitness action will come a lesson focus where by a sport or exercise is highlighted. Recently, it was hockey. Reliford 1st confirmed his college students a small video of a young woman enjoying the activity to encourage absolutely everyone to participate and describe the terminology.
“It provides them track record details. We have a large amount of pupils in Greeley from distinct countries and they may perhaps have under no circumstances listened to of hockey,” Reliford claimed. “So, if I start by stating ‘we’re heading to work with the puck’ they’ll have no clue.”
Reliford’s intention is to integrate lifestyle lessons into his bodily training class ideas to go along with motion, coronary heart rate and health and fitness zones. He even incorporates literacy understanding when he asks his students to spell ‘dribble’ even though dribbling a soccer ball or hockey puck. Reliford uncovered the worth of very well-rounded health and how to educate it though he was attending the College of Northern Colorado (UNC) as a Sport and Workout Science student.
“A lot of people today have the stigma that we’re in in this article just actively playing dodgeball, but it was remarkable at UNC for the reason that we experienced out of doors experience courses and unique tactical game strategies that taught us actual physical training is substantially additional than that,” Reliford said.
As a trainer planning institute, all those in UNC’s College of Normal and Health and fitness Sciences take pleasure in pushing for extra bodily schooling classes to keep on to evolve like Reliford’s, although there is an uphill struggle to triumph over.
Thrust to Involve Additional Actual physical Education and learning Hours in Colorado Educational institutions
Irrespective of his tricky perform and considerate curriculum, Reliford’s college students only have physical education and learning as soon as a week, a routine many authorities experience is not sufficient to overcome increased charges of childhood being overweight or offer essential gains to cognitive ability and mind improvement.
“We’re just one of only four states in the country that has no need for actual physical instruction K-12,” said Jaimie McMullen, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Activity and Exercise Science.
McMullen is one particular of many school associates working towards extra consistent condition-large bodily training guidelines.
“Right now, some youngsters will get physical instruction just about every 3rd day because it will rotate with art and music or at the time each 6 days,” McMullen claimed. “In some Colorado center university conditions even though, college students in no way consider bodily education.”
McMullen states this depends on how a college frames its electives. If college students are allowed two electives for every trimester for illustration, and a college student chooses to consider band and a foreign language course, which are total-calendar year electives, there is no time remaining for physical schooling.
“So, in 6 by means of eighth grade when their bodies are modifying, they never find out about well being, wellness, teamwork and interaction,” McMullen said.
McMullen is also a member of the Society of Wellbeing and Bodily Educators (Form Colorado). The organization not long ago advocated for a piece of legislation that had bi-partisan aid, that will identify how valuable top quality actual physical education is for pupils. The pilot plan is named Well being and Wellness By Extensive Bodily Education. McMullen, her colleagues and doctoral pupils are at the moment two a long time into the analysis of the system.
In accordance to the Colorado Condition Health and fitness Section, more than 1 in 4 youngsters in Colorado were chubby or obese in 2013.
In 2014, the Colorado Baby Health Study located only 45.2{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of Colorado young children, aged 5 by 14, exercising for 60 minutes each day.
“It will seem at what will occur when educational institutions are equipped to apply what we established to be high quality actual physical instruction, which is physical instruction taken every day, or at the very least 225 minutes a week for middle educational facilities and 150 minutes a week at the elementary degree,” McMullen explained.
The laws states, not only does actual physical instruction instruction cut down childhood obesity and foster a life time motivation to actual physical action and healthful lifestyles, but a 2007 review by the Institute of Drugs found that physical exercise also has a optimistic impression on cognitive ability and brain improvement, sleeplessness, melancholy, panic and preventing tobacco use.
Until outcomes from the evaluation are released up coming 12 months, McMullen and Shape Colorado are doing work to hold this subject matter operating through legislators’ minds. They invited Consultant Mary Young, who is the vice chair of the Dwelling Education Committee, to Jackson Elementary to witness the impressive procedures Reliford is making use of in his bodily education classes.
“As a learn teacher, [Jioni Reliford’s] actual physical instruction course is a symphony of bodily exercise, social interaction and cooperation interwoven with reading through and math literacy. Who would have imagined tag, Uno Health and mastering how to use a hockey adhere would attain people objectives?” Younger requested.
The recognition of Reliford’s commitment to providing high quality bodily education is what McMullen was hoping for, but the race carries on.
“If each and every teacher was like Jioni Reliford, we’d be in a a great deal greater location, but his pupils do not see him each working day, so think about how great it would be if they did,” McMullen stated.
UNC’s Active Educational facilities Institute Partnering to Establish Expanded Framework for School Physical Action Promotion
Over and above the K-12 classroom, UNC college, staff and pupils have been invested in improving the high quality of bodily schooling and physical action chances for K-12 college students in Colorado and over and above by their Active Colleges Institute (ASI). Component of the only physical instruction graduate system in the point out and housed in UNC’s Faculty of Sport and Work out Science, the ASI conducts investigate and local community engaged scholarship in the space of university bodily activity advertising. And they recently shaped a strategic partnership with a nationwide business called Energetic Schools.
“The motion was recognized as portion of Michelle Obama’s Let us Move campaign. UNC and I have been involved since early on,” Director of UNC’s Lively Schools Institute and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Sport and Physical exercise Science, Brian Dauenhauer, Ph.D., explained. “Currently, I serve on their strategic advisory council, so currently being in a management role with the organization authorized us to already have all those connections in spot. This strategic partnership kind of constructed off of those associations.”
The intention of the two-calendar year partnership, which is set to conclude in summer season 2023, is to help the national corporation transition into its subsequent edition, informally referred to as Active Educational facilities 2..
“A single of the key functions of the 2. model is that it really is incredibly a lot directed by proof-based practice, with the concept staying that we acquire what we know from the research, and we assistance educational facilities, instructors, and directors put it into action in a way that aligns with what the evidence states seriously impacts children the most,” Dauenhauer said.
UNC doctoral college students ended up brought on board to do some of the research and to assistance synthesize what the evidence states about college-based mostly actual physical activity.
“We’re pulling facts out of distinct articles or blog posts on what is a promising follow,” said Lisa Paulson, a doctoral pupil in UNC’s Bodily Education and Physical Activity Leadership program.
“Physical inactivity among youth is a single of the most troublesome troubles,” included Taemin Ha, who is also a doctoral student in UNC’s Actual physical Training and Bodily Action Management system. “We will need to retain the conversation of how vital physical exercise is going and launch additional evidence, which will with any luck , final result in a lot more young children turning out to be much more active and have a happier everyday living.”
The UNC Active Universities Institute is setting up on co-web hosting a virtual meeting this August to introduce the subject to the new Lively Schools framework and will host an in-individual meeting in summertime 2023 to formally launch Active Colleges 2..
“We intend to deliver expert improvement for folks and produce a tradition of what lively faculties can seem like,” Paulson reported. “Our principal objective is to educate people today and construct a group so kids can have extra opportunities for actual physical exercise.”
The University of North Carolina system is leveraging $97 million in pandemic recovery funding to launch a nonprofit ed-tech start-up intended to bolster adult online education in a state with a looming need for more skilled workers.
Project Kitty Hawk is named after the North Carolina beach town the Wright brothers returned to repeatedly before achieving their dream of flight, an apt metaphor for an undertaking that UNC leaders herald as a transformative effort to reach the state’s estimated one million working adults who have some college education but no degree. Sweeping in its ambition, Project Kitty Hawk’s five-year financial plan projects 120 new online program launches and 24,000 net new enrollments across the system’s 16 university campuses by the 2026–27 academic year, according to working papers project leaders shared with Inside Higher Ed.
Half of the state’s workers are eligible for employer education benefits, which UNC system leaders hope to capture by doing a better job of keeping adult learners in the state. As of fall 2019, Liberty and Strayer Universities topped the list of most popular online offerings sought by North Carolina students, more than 60,000 of whom are enrolled in what the working papers called “high-cost, out-of-state programs.” UNC leaders say they want to draw those students into the state system, but in order to succeed, they must better tailor online services and infrastructure to working adults.
Project Kitty Hawk will officially launch after the new year. System leaders plan an equitable revenue share between participating campuses, which will be “well below the rate typically charged by third-party providers.”
By effectively creating its own nonprofit online program manager, UNC is trying to avoid the expense of the profit-driven OPM model for building online education programs. OPMs are increasingly under fire from educators and outside experts who believe the companies’ business models prioritize profits over educational outcomes and learning. Leaders at UNC assert that by forgoing an outside OPM—which they point out can take as much as 60 percent of revenue in exchange for covering up-front costs—Kitty Hawk will be self-sustaining by 2026 and will rely on what the working papers call a “private sector–like approach on behalf of a tremendous public good.”
The working papers depict a system with a uniquely ambitious vision for Kitty Hawk, which they say will provide “end-to-end support to help universities rapidly design and take workforce-aligned programs online as well as attract, enroll and support learners through graduation.” Kitty Hawk will rely on “a central technology and service infrastructure” to help UNC campuses reach working adults, in part, the working papers say, because it will be “less expensive than the traditional approach of more buildings, more personnel, and more programs … or [campuses] doing it themselves.”
While a handful of the system’s campus leaders hailed the initiative and said they weren’t worried about losing revenue or students to a competitive new systemwide hub, outside experts said UNC’s plans are at least partly reminiscent of systemwide online efforts elsewhere that struggled to get off the ground, partially because of such competition. They also questioned what they characterized as an overly ambitious goal to enroll 24,000 net new students in 120 programs with only $97 million in seed money across five years.
“Ninety-seven million is a lot, but not when you hear that they’re talking about 120 programs—that’s less than a million dollars a program,” said Phil Hill, an educational technology consultant and blogger. “The OPMs quite often invest several million per program … They might be biting off more than they could chew. They might not realize just how much time and effort and money is needed to really get these programs running.”
Richard Garrett, chief research officer at the higher education advisory firm Eduventures, called the effort “unprecedented.” But he added that while the system’s effort to centralize rather than create 16 separate online models may seem logical, the track record for doing so has not been good elsewhere.
“The culture of higher ed is decentralized, even among state systems,” Garrett said. “There’s a lot of pitfalls ahead … It’s hard to point to system-level initiatives like this in the online sphere that have thrived as opposed to struggled or been diluted … or, in some cases, failed.”
Administrators at the system’s campuses may see the initiative as competing with successful online programs they’ve already built at their universities, Garrett said.
Just a handful of representatives of the various campuses contacted about the initiative replied. Many of the more than a dozen queried did not return emails and calls seeking comment.
University of North Carolina at Greensboro provost Debbie Storrs’s response was emblematic of the overall reticence to discuss the initiative. Storrs said in a text message that the system was “in the best position to speak about this initiative.”
Allen Guidry, interim vice provost for academic affairs at East Carolina University, said via email that his campus has been “working for some time” to reach adult online learners and offers over 100 undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs online. He said that nearly half of ECU’s 28,000 students took at least one online course in fall 2021, and 8,261 took exclusively online courses. About 5,700 of the 8,261 exclusively online learners were 24 or older.
“With our history and success in online learning at ECU, we have certainly watched the development of Project Kitty Hawk with great interest,” Guidry said in his email. “We are eager to explore how this entity could add further value to our efforts to scale online learning at ECU.”
Asked about the potential for competition as institutions vie for students and revenue, Guidry said that because UNC Online now allows students to access resources across the system, “we really have joined hands in our efforts.” UNC Online currently enables students to register for thousands of online courses from the various UNC institutions but is distinct from Kitty Hawk, which will operate as an affiliated nonprofit OPM.
Chancellor Darrell Allison of Fayetteville State University, a historically Black college where about half of the 5,661 undergraduates are 25 or older, said Project Kitty Hawk will be an important addition to the system, which he said must adapt to changing demographic trends.
“We don’t have an option—this is the new reality,” Allison said. He added that the days of counting on recent high school graduates to populate a freshman class “are long gone.”
Only 9 percent of UNC system undergraduates currently learn exclusively online, and just 13 percent are over the age of 25. UNC leaders believe these statistics underscore the need for a more robust adult online offering.
System planning documents show the statewide growth rate for 18- to 24-year-olds is forecast to be 8 percent through 2029 and just 1 percent from 2029 to 2039, a radical slowdown that system leaders say is in part fueling their work.
UNC system president Peters Hans said he is determined to win back adult online learners who now turn to outside online education providers, many of whom he called “bad actors.”
“I think about those adults and the chance for them to get ahead in their jobs, or perhaps start a new career, [and] what a difference we can make towards hitting our state’s ambitious educational attainment goals,” Hans said. “We set the goal of two million more North Carolinians with high-quality credentials by 2030, and we see [Project Kitty Hawk] playing a critical role.”
Hans added that while some of the system’s universities already offer online programs targeted to adult learners, the current offerings do not engage them “nearly to the extent I think that we could and should be.”
He said Kitty Hawk classes will be high quality and more than “basically Zoom classes.” He hailed his senior vice president for strategy and policy, Andrew Kelly, who helped create the blueprint for Kitty Hawk after meeting and speaking with other system leaders and educational technology experts across the country about lessons learned from prior efforts.
The plan “was to create an OPM-like nonprofit,” Kelly said, “thereby enabling our universities to build more of those undergraduate programs that can really serve those 25-plus working adults.”
He added that Kitty Hawk’s nonprofit status will give new programs “more latitude” to merely break even.
But even if programs are allowed to break even, UNC has a tough road ahead, said Iris Palmer, a deputy director with the education policy program at the center-left think tank New America who has studied other state university systems’ online education models. Palmer said her research has focused on adult learners and the difficulties many have faced.
Many state systems and individual universities have long viewed adult students as an important population to cultivate and have created or expanded online programs to appeal to the demographic. Strategies for building these programs have varied, with some systems electing to take over an existing university to lay a foundation for their efforts and others building a new internal unit, as UNC is doing. Still others have created entirely new institutions, as the California Community Colleges opted to do with their Calbright College effort.
Purdue University, the University of Arizona and the University of Arkansas and University of Massachusetts systems are among the most notable examples of institutions that have bought existing online programs. The model typically requires relying on external—and expensive—OPMs. These attempts to co-opt existing online universities are broadly seen as risky and have at times been riven with controversy.
Purdue’s acquisition of the for-profit Kaplan University, for example, spurred an outcry from faculty members who worried about lower educational quality and blurred lines between the university and its online counterpart, Purdue University Global. While many of these new efforts are still too nascent to judge, institutions have faced tough questions about how they intend to achieve their vision for massive new online efforts without sacrificing quality or introducing a troubling profit motive to nonprofit state systems.
An important precursor to the UNC effort can be found at the University of Missouri, which in March united the online programs offered by its four system universities under one umbrella, Missouri Online. The new online platform debuted with 260 degree and certificate programs, and officials promised an additional 22 programs by next year. System leaders spearheading the Missouri effort said the consolidation would increase collaboration and efficiency, though whether that prediction will prove true remains to be seen.
The California Community Colleges’ Calbright initiative has posted clearer results—and they are disheartening. Calbright was launched in late 2019 to great fanfare, but it is now under threat of being closed, with a recent state audit finding the online-only institution graduated merely 12 of more than 900 enrolled students in its first year. Calbright leadership was blasted by auditors for making poor strategic choices even when armed with a staggering $175 million in state funding promised through June 2025.
Palmer said her research findings make clear why programs like Calbright have struggled: adult learners often strain to learn online, particularly given the competing pressures they face at work and home. She said faculty mentorship and significant engagement with professors has proven to be vital for these students. Palmer worries that an online-only model could be challenging for UNC, since it is difficult for all but the most self-directed students to stay motivated when learning exclusively online.
Kelly said student success coaches are central to the Kitty Hawk model and that he foresees in-person support to complement the online instruction once the pandemic ends.
Project Kitty Hawk leaders say campuses will be able to opt out of participating, and they made clear they view their organization as a source of support for individual institutions. But competition dynamics are nonetheless a problem embedded in these efforts, Palmer said. With Kitty Hawk anticipating 24,000 new enrollees in five years—which Palmer said in an email is “very ambitious”—the 16 university campuses inevitably will be vying for the same students and revenue.
“Once you start to have centralized online programming,” Palmer said, “it can be seen as competition; it can be seen as the beginning of some kind of regulation, or throttling, of the online programs that are offered at each individual campus. It’s a very difficult thing to pull off.”
UNC leaders seemed to anticipate Palmer’s line of reasoning; the working papers assert that the organization will not support any institution’s plans for new programs without an attempt to “validate market demand.”
“New program opportunities can originate from Kitty Hawk’s own market intelligence function, emerge from the universities, or be solicited directly from employers and education benefit providers,” the documents say.
Kelly emphasized the autonomy individual campuses will have to execute programs. He said the individual institutions will award degrees, offer the instruction and make assessments.
Hill reviewed the working papers and said he came away with the impression that the system hasn’t yet “done the hard work” of consensus building.
“They make a compelling argument why we need to invest internally, as in UNC system capabilities,” Hill said. “But it raises the question … ‘Are we building up capabilities just within this Kitty Hawk initiative? Or are we going to do it as a way of making each of the … campuses better?’ And I don’t think they’ve figured it out.”
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