Educating Working Adults: Walden University President Jonathan Kaplan (Part 5)

SM: As long as a university is regionally accredited, it qualifies for financial aid?

JK: Yes. There are other specific requirements along as well, but that is the most important issue.

SM: Have you been involved in any of the emerging federal policy? Since your background is in policy, I would presume you have great contacts in Washington. What is the government’s approach to leveraging online education to make a difference?

JK: The U.S. Department of Education noted that over the past years there is a trend of growing acceptance of distance learning. There continue to be policy issues that we are engaged in, along with other online universities, to ensure that universities and their students are not penalized in any way due to the mode of learning. The U.S. Department of Education did a meta-study of 99 studies which concluded that online learning had better learning outcomes.

Today the discussion in education needs to be around quality outcomes. I can’t speak for all online universities, but I can tell you from Walden’s standpoint we are very committed to quality outcomes. We are focused on ensuring that students are satisfied with programs. We survey our students, graduates, and their employers. We have great results from these surveys to see how they are doing.

SM: I recently wrote a Forbes piece about K-12 where companies focused on skill gap analysis. These companies use technology to make quality outcomes measurable. Teachers in that model are guides. That is a very different mode of teaching that requires teachers to learn how to teach in a different model. We have a very large group of K-12 teachers in America. This has resulted in a lot of teachers who do not have backgrounds in the subjects they teach, which is particularly true of math and science. Have you thought about that dilemma at all?

JK: At Walden, our approach to teachers and educators is one where we are not advocates for a specific technological perspective. Our approach is not to say that having a computer deployed in a classroom is better than a classroom that does not have one. Our approach is about what works for teachers in the classroom. Our focus in teacher education is in a range of key areas that teachers need expertise in.

When we look at reading or math, it is not just reading. It is targeted for the appropriate groups. It could be early reading and childhood literature. We are not focused on ‘teachers on teachers’ but on sixth to eighth [grade] teachers, or early childhood literature. That is where teachers live and where their focus is.

This segment is part 5 in the series : Educating Working Adults: Walden University President Jonathan Kaplan
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