The Chronicle of Higher Education and University of Phoenix presented a Webinar viewed by a small group in the CTL yesterday: “Next-Generation Education for Next-Generation Students.”

The webinar was not really about the advertised topic, but rather about University of Phoenix’s approach to developmental education. In a nutshell, they have revised their developmental approach to be a “just-in-time” format, where they will ensure that students have full college-level skills by the time they graduate. Their idea is that students can gradually increase their skills in combination with taking college-level courses. This is very similar to the program Louise H. has brought in “College Experience,” where gateway courses are combined with one-credit life and study skills companion courses to assist students coming out of the developmental track.

University of Phoenix does have interesting data for community colleges, since they also have an open admissions policy. With a student body of 400,000, U of P has a large and diverse group from which to draw out trends. At the same time, as an online-only institution, it may be hard to do direct comparisons to a more classroom-based college.