Calbright College’s primary mission is to increase economic mobility and close equity gaps for working adults who aren’t well served by traditional forms of higher education. As part of that goal, the state of California also gave us another mission: to explore new approaches to adult online higher education, develop innovative best practices, and to share them with our sister community colleges across California.
This is essential work – there is comparatively little research on how to best support working adults and returning students in higher education.
You can now follow along with Calbright’s research on its new Research and Innovation page. It includes our research methods, research partners, and ongoing initiatives, as well as articles about our results. This is why Calbright is quickly becoming one of the leading “lab schools” for online adult education.
Our ongoing research efforts include:
- Developing new technologies that improve the experience and results of online higher education for adults
- Finding ways to help students persist through college, completing their programs and achieving their goals
- Boosting student access – with less bureacracy – so that college systems are easy to navigate and convenient for students
- Developing strong online communities so that students get the benefits of collaboration and fellowship, rather than feeling isolated
- Advancing Competency-Based Education, a system in which students can set their own schedules and are evaluated by what they know, not how much time they’ve spent in class
- Attracting a diverse student body, finding and supporting the students who need higher education the most but are least likely to apply
- Offering robust labor market insight and analysis so that our students are well positioned for tomorrow’s job market as well as today’s
These innovations can make a difference for everyone, not just Calbright’s students, and help make both education and the economy more equitable and accessible. Keep an eye on our research page and follow our blog to see what we’re discovering!
