File:WGU 8-25-2020.jpg

Western Governors University

Looking Back at a Year When Education Turned to 'Distance Learning'

The COVID - CORONAVIRUS epidemic changes the direction of teaching

SJS/GreenPolicy360 Siterunner:

On August 25, 2020, in Clearwater, Florida, I'm appreciating reading of the success of the Western Governors University.

• https://twitter.com/wgu/status/1298284111887364097

I recall the start up of the new online/distance learning experiment we originally called 'the Virtual University'.

In 1995, as a member of the New Mexico State Board of Education, I was appointed to be the state's representative on the Working Group charged with the task of writing a strategic plan and implementing the financial and operational elements to launch what became the Western Governors University.

As a chair of the state technology initiatives, including policy for some 900 K-12 schools installing Internet infrastructure, I envisioned extending K-12 into a "K-16 education plan" with three main elements: 1) the first state-operated free tuition college scholarship program in the country; 2) for rural western states, robust distance-remote online learning curriculum and credentialing via a start-up WGU; and in NM a NewMAP, a New Mexico Accountability Plan which would gather performance data and enable, for the first time, education policy assessment and managing based on an information system we built.

All the goals were met by the time I left for Florida in 2000.

The concept of 'Stand and Deliver', as in the movie by the same name, was a banner for me personally.

Looking back now, 25 years later, it feels good to see the success of the WGU and the NM scholarship program.

And I've been told that the NM technology enabling NewMAP is still working, being updated, and producing trendlines over time.

Data counts!

SJS

And so it goes... stepping up for another day, another challenge

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Steven_Schmidt

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/User_talk:Siterunner

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