“Supporting students doesn’t always mean offering more content, services or touchpoints,” according to researchers Tom Tache and Ben Castleman, writing in The Hechinger Report. “Sometimes it means one less form to complete, one less decision to make, one less barrier. Research shows that the most effective solutions tend to work because they lighten students’ loads by making it easier to focus, decide and act.”
Castlman is a professor of public policy and education at the University of Virginia, while Tasche is senior director of innovation at ideas42. They cited work ideas42 has done with Calbright College as an example of their premise that effective innovation in higher education is as much about simplifying processes for students as it is adding new ones:
Calbright students value the flexibility the college offers but also need a clear sense of how to pace their coursework in a learning environment without terms or deadlines. To solve this dilemma, Calbright developed a set of nonbinding timelines laying out program milestones to help keep students on track to their target completion date.
The key was that, along with adding something, the structured timelines also subtracted ambiguity and reduced the mental effort students had to expend just to stay on track. They also eliminated the need for students to create their own schedules from scratch.
The result? In a randomized evaluation, students who received the structured timelines were nearly twice as likely to complete their program within one year.
This is one of many such efforts at Calbright – to keep programs educationally rigorous but logistically simple, with a minimum of bureaucracy and red tape. That includes simplifying admissions (everyone who meets the criteria gets in – that’s it), simplifying costs (Calbright is currently free to Californians over the age of 18 – no paperwork needed), simplifying class scheduling (every student gets into every class they need for their program and can take classes online on their own schedules), and finding help when they need it (every student has a team who knows them by name and is just one message away).
The result is an approach to education that supports students and removes processes that have nothing to do with whether a student is learning and succeeding in their program. Instead, students can stay focused on their education, job skills, and workforce development goals.
“Students shouldn’t have to navigate a maze of forms, websites and guesswork to reach their goals,” Tasche and Castleman write. “We’re not calling for colleges to offer fewer programs of study or opportunities but to remove the small but persistent hassles and ambiguities that slow students down. The goal is to make it possible for students to focus on learning instead of time- and energy-consuming administrative tasks.”
It’s an approach that Calbright has implemented at every level.
