101 WACKY IDEAS

RECLAIMING A NATION OF PRE-GRADUATES

IDEAS

TALENT IS CRITICAL
capita income.

Educational attainment is the biggest predictor of success for cities and metro areas today. The research is unassailable. The more educated a citys population, the more robust its economy will be. In fact, educational attainment explains 58 percent of any citys success, as measured by per

THE TALENT DIVIDEND

In a move to increase the political and civic will to produce more college graduates and thereby help cities capture real economic gains, CEOs for Cities calculated the Talent Dividend. Increasing college attainment by one percentage point in each of the 51 largest metropolitan areas would be associated with an increase in personal income of $124 billion per year for the nation. With the support of the Lumina Foundation for Education and DeVry Inc., CEOs for Cities launched a 30-city Talent Dividend Tour in 2009 to present these findings to local urban leaders. One fact stood out: every metropolitan region has a large number of adults with some college, but no degree. Getting these adults to finish college -- we call them pre-graduates -- is a key strategy to achieve the Talent Dividend.

WACKY IDEA SCORECARD

HUMAN DESIGN CRITERIA
AFFORDABLE ACCESSIBLE PERSONAL ENGAGING REWARDING

MASS APPLICABILITY EASE OF EXECUTION FINANCIALLY VIABLE EASE OF COMMUNICATION

IMPLEMENTATION CRITERIA

WACKY ACCELERATOR
WOW! GAME-CHANGING! YIKES!

PRE-GRADUATES
In order to develop strategies to get pre-graduates to complete a four-year degree, their special needs must be better understood. CEOs for Cities engaged KvJ & Company, a team of innovation advisors, lead by Katherine von Jan, that identify tomorrows unsolved needs to help organizations link emerging and established trends to bold opportunities for growth, innovation and leadership. The project had three parts. Ethnographic research, including participant journals, excursions and in-home interviews, was conducted by anthropologist Mike Youngblood and team with pre-graduates in Seattle, New York, Memphis and Chicago. What emerged were key insights into the journeys students take through school and the challenges they face. From the ethnographies, student personas were created, providing a foundation for ideation. The second part involved interviews with experts across disciplines to bring a fresh perspective and thinking to higher education. This included seven innovator interviews and two college executive interviews. An ideation salon was held with six experts to discuss personas and brainstorm ideas. The third element of the project involved further ideation within KvJ & Company through internal salons. To determine the top ten, ideas were organized into categories based on personas needs and evaluated and prioritized using a scorecard of human design criteria, implementation criteria and the wacky accelerator (see left). The top ten ideas were built out to recognize potential revenue and costs associated with each idea.

Through expert interviews and multiple salons, hundreds of ideas were developed, evaluated and refined to reveal:

101 WACKY IDEAS

RECLAIMING A NATION OF PRE-GRADUATES
IDEAS
The full background and detailed ethnographic personas can be found in the sister publication PROCESS & PERSONAS.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was made possible by the Lumina Foundation for Education. We are especially appreciative of our 12 pre-graduates who participated in our ethnographic research allowing us to understand their education experiences and lives. We would also like to thank innovation experts including Maria Aiolova, Dan Ariely, Noah Brier, Adele Falco, Meg Foye, Tony Hsieh, Mitchell Joaquim, Joel Podolny, Jason Rzepka, Denis Weil and higher education experts Charles Bantz and Sharon Thomas Parrott who participated in interviews and ideation salons. Additionally, we are thankful to Paula Allen-Meares, Charles Bantz, Luis Proenza, Shirley Raines, Mark Rosenberg, Wim Wiewel and Nancy Zimpher for being critical friends to the findings and recommendations. And a special thank you to Suzanne Walsh of the Lumina Foundation for her continued partnership in this work.

101 WACKY IDEAS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TOP 5 WACKY IDEAS

1
UPFRONT INVESTMENT CUT COSTS
Cut cost of real-estate Cut cost of teaching and lecturing

POP-UP CLASSROOMS
Learning happens. It happens wherever and whenever people are open to it. Decentralized learning makes it easily accessible and exciting. Ad hoc classrooms can pop up in movie theaters in off hours, empty lots, break rooms at grocery stores, laundry rooms, at Starbucks, on treadmills at gyms, at child care centers, on roof tops, parks, in abandoned storefronts and more. The enticing business model is to pay by the class, as you go, rather than by the semester. Use platforms like iTunes to sell lessons, like selling songs versus albums. Classes can be provided via jukeboxes playing video lectures where people already are with free-time on their hands. Classes can pop-up when the right number of the right students seem to be in close proximity. GPS technology with some logic about profiles can identify opportunities that make sense for a pop-up classroom to appear and engage students.

GENERATE REVENUE EVERYWHERE

Develop online content (TED-talk like lectures) Develop online testing Develop relationships with businesses and cities for locations Develop a mobile unit or education jukebox to broadcast classes Develop a key card to recognize and track student activities Develop awareness of locations (meet ups are critical)

GENERATE REVENUE

Generate and syndicate content and courses Pay-by-the-class increases revenue and makes classes accessible to more people, including hobbyists Provide courses through employers in workplaces Right place, right time classes create more value and generate more revenue

UTILIZE UNUSED SPACE

PROVIDE LEARNING TO MORE

GYM CLASSROOMS
ACCESSIBILITY

BRANDED MOBILE CLASSROOMS

SPONSOR FUNDED

2
FAILURE LAB
PREVENT DEFEAT
UPFRONT INVESTMENT CUT COSTS GENERATE REVENUE

Its good to fail in the Failure Lab! Re-brand failure as a great learning experience. Students explore and understand past failures, experiment and intentionally take risky courses they are likely to fail, like an English major taking quantum physics or an art student taking statistics. This is a safe-for-failure environment. All students should be required to take Failure Lab for a semester during their tenure at the university. The earlier the better. Failure Lab could be sponsored or branded by innovative companies like 3M that appreciate failure for its creative advantage in the surprises. Create the redemption course for people who have failed classes to understand what they could have done differently. They can provide insight for future students on how to prepare for successful completion of that course.

Partner with innovative companies and foundations Develop failure curriculum Develop physical failure lab Develop specific courses on failure Doesnt cut costs for the university, but enables students to avoid paying multiple times for the same challenging course Generate and syndicate failure content and courses

3
UPFRONT INVESTMENT CUT COSTS GENERATE REVENUE

CAUSE CENTRIC EXPERIENCE

Create the college experience and degree paths around real world causes. Themes may include environmentalism, globalization, mobility, safety, family or other things students simply care about. The cause is the lens for every experience at the university including curriculum, classes, activities and a thesis. Enable students, mentors and activists to meet, support each other and make recommendations for classes, curriculum, internships and portfolio work. Tap into communities of interest related to specific challenges and causes. Create solutions and content to publish together. Create a clubhouse or embassy for each cause in the way that fraternities have frat houses.

BANK ON ROI AND VISIBILITY

Partner with companies and foundations Hire curriculum advisors Create curriculum with students to solve problems Invest in (or find companies) to invest in solutions Visible platform to promote students and solutions

Self-service model transfers work from staff to students Generate and syndicate content and courses Create and patent prototypes Invest in and share IP for market development

4
UPFRONT INVESTMENT CUT COSTS GENERATE REVENUE

LEARNING DASHBOARD
Create a beautiful, simple learning portal accessible through a computer, Kindle or PDA. Provide curriculum, classes, content and advice from students, alumni, business people and professors including trade secrets to help each other navigate the system. A matchmaker algorithm matches students with the right cohorts, classes, professors and the right university for the right reasons. Also allow students to try some online courses for free. Promote formal or informal study-group meet ups, pop-up classrooms and other activities. Students manage their personal advisory board of alumni, professors, students and real world professionals, as well as participate in national communities of interest. Visualize milestones: you have just two more credits to achieve Sophomore status.

CHARGE LESS, EARN MORE

Design, develop and launch the dashboard Marginally cut the cost of hand-holding and other administrative services, including admissions More students take more courses More students stay in and complete a degree More students stay on for life long learning (multiple degrees) Increasing the number of students in school means costs amortize over more people and cost of tuition can be cut while earning more

LAPTOP DESKTOP

DASHBOARD CLOUD

PHONE/MOBILE DEVICE

OTHER DEVICES (GYM, ETC.)

5
UPFRONT INVESTMENT CUT COSTS GENERATE REVENUE

CAREER DISCOVERY CAMP

Rethink the freshman year, and restructure it to enable students to try on careers with real employers to realize if this is your calling. Partner with firms to provide these atypical internships. Students must actually develop portfolio work. Career discovery is designed to find and release their inner rock star. This process prevents people from investing time and money in courses and a career they might hate. An eight month school year could accommodate six Career Camps for completion in the first year, with relevant course work and discussion groups in the evening. Career discovery can be supported in the virtual world to allow students to continue networking and training, but does not replace real in-person experience. Career discovery clearly requires greater institutional attentiveness to individual strengths and interests.

CUT COSTS AND FRESHMAN TUITION

Partner with a significant number of companies locally (and around the globe) Develop a career discovery tracking and matchmaking system Adopt a headhunter or placement model for freshman year Train local mentors or Teaching Assistants to be career coaches (in exchange for course classes or credit) Eliminate most freshman year content, courses and services (replaced by online content to support the discovery process and a Facebook-like community of students with occasional meet ups) Cut staff for new requirements (fewer freshman courses = fewer professors needed) Earn revenue for those students work (or a percentage thereof ) and apply those wages to reduce tuition

support an organizations client... [+ MORE]

ARCHITECT CONSULTANT

Oversees and plans all architectural aspects of construction projects. Responsible for final specifications, approval of ordered materials and over... [+ MORE]

CAD DRAFTER

Transforms initial rough product designs using computer aided design (CAD) into working documents. Reviews engineering drawing and design... [+ MORE]

FASHION DESIGNER

Develops and designs clothing and accessories. May require an associates degree or its equivalent with at least 3-5 years of experience in the field... [+ MORE]

BIO CHEMIST

Evaluates the chemical and physical properties of various organic and inorganic substances in order to investigate their applications to medicine... [+ MORE]

PROJECT MANAGER

Responsible for the coordination and completion of projects. Oversees all aspects of projects. Sets deadlines, assigns responsibilities and... [+ MORE]

MARKETING DIRECTOR

Directs and oversees an organizations marketing policies, objectives and initiatives. Conducts market research and develops marketing plans... [+ MORE]

TELECOM TECHNICIAN

Installs, troubleshoots, repairs and maintains telecommunications equipment. Provides reports, completes requests for new service and determines... [+ MORE]

ELECTRICAL ENGINEER

Designs, tests, installs and maintains large-scale electronic equipment or machinery for use in manufacturing or power generation or... [+ MORE]

EXECUTIVE CHEF

Directs and oversees the operations of the kitchen(s), including menu development, inventory and purchasing of supplies and cost control. Creates... [+ MORE]

CLIENT/SERVER PROGRAMMER
Reviews, analyzes and modifies programming systems including encoding, testing, debugging and in-

WACKY IDEAS ARE G.R.A.F.I.C.

GRATIFICATION REINCARNATION ALLIANCE FRATERNITY INTEGRATION COST CUTTING
WE USE THESE CORE CATEGORIES BORN FROM OUR SECONDARY RESEARCH, EXPERT INSIGHT AND ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH AS A SPRINGBOARD TO CULL 101 WACKY IDEAS FOR REINVENTING COLLEGE FOR PRE-GRADUATES

G
001 002 003 004 005 006 007 008 009 010 UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS AS COACHES EAT YOUR ICE CREAM FIRST MODEL URBAN DICTIONARY FOR COLLEGE EXECUTIVE MBA MODEL MEMBERSHIP REWARDS PROGRAM COHORT LOYALTY REWARDS PROGRAM VIRTUAL LEARNING GAMES COMPETITION REALITY SERIES

GRATIFICATION IDEAS
Deliver ongoing rewards, useful knowledge, credentials and real world feedback before, during and beyond bachelor degree attainment.

PROFESSORS WITH REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE

COMPANY PROVIDED UNDERGRAD EDUCATION

001

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS AS COACHES

Archive online components of courses including questions and feedback from previous sessions. Give credit to people who wrote answers (and tips), and provide access to both their explicit written information and to student authors via Instant Message for them to become mentors, coaches and tutors. Former students are thereby validated that their learning matters by becoming mentors and using what they learned in a valuable way.

002

EAT YOUR ICE CREAM FIRST MODEL

Learn degree specific material (that you are passionate about) first, then study the general stuff afterwards through the lens of your specific major. For example, study pre-law and get all those law-specific classes first, then take French 101 with a focus on legal words and influences. Or study design first, and then math as it applies to design or running a design business.

003

URBAN DICTIONARY FOR COLLEGE

This is a dictionary for students, professors and alumni to provide their interpretation of complicated education jargon as it applies to real world employers, parents, the media and others. Teach students how to translate jargon into job applicability. Translation of the same words into different voices makes the

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GRATIFICATION IDEAS

23

work seem more applicable in the real world, more valuable in various social circles and easier to navigate the external non-university world.
004

EXECUTIVE MBA MODEL

Undergraduates turn real world experience into courses and credits, and this allows students to study intensively in a shorter amount of time to complete a degree faster.

005

PROFESSORS WITH REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE

Simply get more professors that can use their real world experience for enhancing learning and help students create relationships with people who can assist them to get or create their own jobs.

006

MEMBERSHIP REWARDS PROGRAM

Achieve academic milestones and receive rewards from the campus or city for valuable items like food, airline tickets, electronics or more academic and career-focused items like exclusive internships, books and learning journeys, or life management rewards like childcare, car tune-ups, dry cleaning, parking and errand runners.

007

COHORT LOYALTY REWARDS PROGRAM

Students collectively achieve milestones academically and receive group trips (e.g. a learning trip or in-field sabbatical), group discounts, group internships and real world mentoring from executives.

008

VIRTUAL LEARNING GAMES

Students earn points as they play and learn. Visualize the progress they have made getting to the next level and review progress every time they log in to play, so they are reminded of how much they have already achieved.

009

COMPETITION REALITY SERIES

Like Americas Next Top Model or Trumps The Apprentice applied to learning on the campus or local level. Students compete in real life activities in alignment with their degree and win internships, college credit, college payment or jobs. Incoming classes can split into teams of cohorts to compete as they earn their degrees. Minimizes quitting and failing out as it encourages cohort support and follows students, competing as they go, through their program. This can be paid by sponsors or advertisers.
Send undergraduate students to Apple U, Hamburger U, Wrigley U and other companies employee education programs to earn credit and degrees through real companies while increasing student exposure to potential employers.

010

COMPANY PROVIDED UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION

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GRATIFICATION IDEAS

25

R
011 012 013 014 015 016 017 018 019 020 021 022 023 024 025 026 027 028 029 030 031 032 033 REDEMPTION REPORT FAILURE AMNESIA LENDING CIRCLES CAREER DISCOVERY CAMP CITY WIDE CAREER EXCHANGE SOCIAL LEARNING WEBSITE MENTORING LABS INTERVIEWS FOR DEVELOPMENT FRESHMAN SEMINARS SELF-EVALUATION QUIZ UNIVERSITY EHARMONY ON CAMPUS FAILURE LAB FAILURE COURSE KARATE MODEL PEER-TO-PEER PROJECTS POSSE MENTORING PEER-TO-PEER MENTORING EXCHANGE STUDENT ENTREPRENEUR MODEL PERSONALIZED STUDY

REINCARNATION IDEAS
Reveal and celebrate students inner rock star to achieve their full potential.

FRIENDLY (LOW-BARRIER-TO-ENTRY) ADMISSIONS

ENCOURAGE AND PROMOTE SUCCESS STORIES TRACKING HAPPINESS IPHONE APPLICATION

DEMONSTRATING YOUR MASTERY COURSE(S)

011

REDEMPTION REPORT
If a student fails a course multiple times, they shouldnt have to pass go to move on to other important courses. Dont let them get stuck and frustrated by the experience and the recurring cost; they can opt out of taking the course again by producing a Redemption Reportabout what worked, what didnt and what was valuable about the experience to coach other students struggling and turn failure into a positive for the student and university.

012

FAILURE AMNESIA

Erase the experience of a failure by giving people three strikes or three failed classes before it goes on their transcripts, and they dont have to pay for the course or do it over. They can look for another class to fulfill that criteria (dont force them to leave a semester).
Friends get together and pool money to help each other go through school one at a time knowing that your friends will encourage your strengths (tell you dont take that course) and support you in not failing since its their dime. (Of course, these have to be lower price-points and/or shorter timeframes for classes for lending circles to work; for example, class duration is a long weekend, or 6 weeks.)

013

LENDING CIRCLES

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014

CAREER DISCOVERY CAMP

Try on careers with real employers. These are not typical internships, but involve doing real work (versus filing, answering phones, etc.) in the first year for students to see if it is their calling and releases their inner rock star. This would prevent people from investing time in courses and money on a career they might hate. An eight month school year could require six Career Camps for completion in the first year, with relevant course work and discussion groups in the evening. Could also be supported by Career Discovery in the Virtual World which is not a replacement for in person contact, but would allow students to continue networking and training online.
Turn the city into an active career fair and give people the opportunity to exchange jobs with others, or for students to try on jobs for one month. Post city-wide job listings for the City Career Exchange for Students and Second Career-Seekers. This also puts students on the same level as graduates seeking new careers.

015

CITY WIDE CAREER EXCHANGE

016

SOCIAL LEARNING WEBSITE

A government endorsed website that combines social utility with support services and customization. Participating universities are incented to provide curricula. This extends beyond one campus mentality and is structured by national communities of interest or study married with personality matches.

017

MENTORING LABS
Ongoing shoulder-to-shoulder training and development by and with alumni in the real world for class completion. The alumni provide consistent feedback to help identify strengths and weaknesses of the students and determine if the real world area explored is a good match for the students actual career.

018

INTERVIEWS FOR DEVELOPMENT

Psychological profiling and interviews to identify a students natural tendencies, learning styles, strengths and weaknesses, and map out possibilities for career and college experience (these can be reviewed by professors to help address student needs). Also provide feedback along the way to set new goals for professors and students.

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019

FRESHMAN SEMINARS
Freshmen typically have larger classes, so turn freshman classes into seminars of smaller groups to encourage real connections. Turn students into cohorts and professors into mentors; if you make classes even larger then account for the difference in size with mandatory weekly seminars run by TAs - even undergraduate TAs - that have specific focus areas or natural aptitude.

020

FRIENDLY (LOW-BARRIER-TO-ENTRY) ADMISSIONS

Make it easier and feel less challenging to go back to school. Admissions staff are the equivalent of the Wal-Mart greeter or a flight attendant. They welcome, and help returning students through the simplified process. Students prove they were once accepted to a four-year degree program anywhere and they are in. (No transcripts necessary unless they want credit for those courses.) Provide entry courses rather than applications to screen students. Let them try on the student lifestyle and get integrated back in and judge them based on their course work not their application.

021

SELF-EVALUATION QUIZ

Provide frequent (Cosmo-like or Facebooklike) quizzes for students to realize their own talent and recognize patterns of failure.
Use a matchmaker quiz and algorithm to match students with the right cohorts, classes and professors. Make sure they are at the right university for the right reasons and increase their likelihood of connecting with the right community.

022

UNIVERSITY EHARMONY

023

ON CAMPUS FAILURE LAB

Re-brand failure as a great learning experience. Its good to fail in the Failure Lab! Students explore and understand past failures, look for positives, experiment, try new things and take risky courses they are likely to fail, such as an English major taking quantum physics or an art student taking statistics in this safe-for-failure environment. All students should be required to take Failure Lab for a semester. It could be sponsored or branded by innovative companies like 3M that appreciate failure.

024

FAILURE COURSE
A course designed for all students who failed something the previous semester. Learn lessons based on personal and others failures. Students are valued for what they bring to the table versus what they do not. Make it a positive to be there. (Although in case you are wondering, its not acceptable to fail the failure course.)

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025

KARATE MODEL

Create and value courses that are out of the traditional realm. Karate can teach physics, comics can teach math. Schools can even create a belt, stripes or some artifact for collecting these unique credits.
Projects can be an online class or a web community in which students define problems they would like to solve and create or join a community working together to find a solution. Students support each other, compliment weaknesses, learn from each others strengths and create a portfolio piece for all.

026

PEER-TO-PEER PROJECTS

027

POSSE MENTORING
Every student has an advisory board made up of alumni, professors, students, and real world professionals to consult with them on an ongoing basis. Use technology to achieve this effectively.

028

PEER-TO-PEER MENTORING EXCHANGE

Individuals donate their tutoring skills in exchange for being tutored on topics they need help with.

029

STUDENT ENTREPRENEUR MODEL

At any time students can develop a business-plan and submit it. If selected the university invests and waves tuition in exchange for a percentage of the students business.

030

ENCOURAGE AND PROMOTE SUCCESS STORIES

First, define success criteria and categories, then capture and broadcast the success stories of alumni and students. Help students capture and broadcast their own success stories in school.

031

TRACKING HAPPINESS IPHONE APPLICATION

Self reflection is a proven way to improve learning and achievement. Tracking progress, pride and delight through a dashboard lets professors see students reflections & happiness (motivation) levels. This can also alert professors if there is a reason to be concerned about a student. This is particularly relevant for high risk students.

032

PERSONALIZED STUDY

For admission, students must bring an idea or problem to solve rather than a generic essay, and university advisors create a personalized curriculum to help them answer that question.
Let undergraduates teach and offer mini-courses (like continuing education courses), to hone in on what theyre good at. This also applies to things that they learned outside of college (cleaning an AK47 from the military, customer service from being a waitress, negotiation from being a bill collector, etc.). Zappos does this with its employees.

033

DEMONSTRATING YOUR MASTERY COURSE(S)

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A
ALLIANCE IDEAS
034 SECOND CHANCES 035 ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR FAILURE 036 TALENT AGENCY MODEL 037 MIT MEDIA LAB MODEL 038 THANK YOU REWARDS 039 EDUCATION MONEY BACK GUARANTEE 040 EDUCATION MANIFESTO 041 LIVE PROFESSOR DISCUSSION FORUMS 042 TRULIA MODEL 043 TRIP ADVISOR MODEL 044 HOTELS.COM MODEL 045 SLIDING SCALE 046 NO RISK SHORT CLASSES

Share the risk & reward with students to demonstrate commitment and gain mutual benefit.

034

SECOND CHANCES
Dont make people pay if they have to take a class for a second time. Offer the student the same class with a different professor, based on availability (they may have to wait a semester or two).

035

ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR FAILURE

If the student passes a redo course with another professor they get an additional class free because the university wasted their time and money with the first professor.

036

TALENT AGENCY MODEL

College is free (providing they finish within 5 years), and universities take a percentage of students future earnings no matter what their future careers or initiatives are.
Get real businesses to invest in the development of students and IP.

037

MIT MEDIA LAB MODEL

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038

THANK YOU REWARDS

The top two percent of students in each class at college earns some money back (financial reward). This also incents students to aim for successful, speedy completion. Universities make money on repeat classes and more years of college, so give some of that back to students who move faster and more successfully. For example, if four years costs $200K or $50k per year, completion in three years might be $170K: more than the typical cost of three years, but less than the typical cost of the four year program. Could also enable students with a 3.0+ GPA average to take as many classes as they want for a fixed fee.

039

EDUCATION MONEY BACK GUARANTEE

If students fail to get a job in their field within 12-36 months the college takes responsibility for not educating and preparing students properly and forgives loans or returns payments based on certain amounts for each year without work. (Requires restructuring education around job attainment, a strong placement program and ongoing coaching to ensure the student understands the implications and dayto-day reality of their future profession and if it is a good fit.)

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ALLIANCE IDEAS

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040

EDUCATION MANIFESTO
University and a student concurrently sign an agreement to share risk; the university delivers the ability to succeed, and the student delivers commitment to succeed and meets with their career mentor monthly. The students tuition is based on their success after five years out of college.

041

LIVE PROFESSOR DISCUSSION FORUMS

Learn from any professor at any school. Professors are incented to participate and establish stronger ties with students to better their reputations within the open forum community and academic community at large. Professors collaborate with each other here.
A website provides transparency across all schools about the slots filled and available, classes available with information about the curriculum and professor, advice and opinions from local students, alumni, business people and professors. Students then have the ability to search and map a curriculum based on their specific interest and see examples of the curricula others followed. Free access- no registration.

042

TRULIA MODEL

043

TRIP ADVISOR MODEL

Students provide feedback on classes, professors, college community, internships, opportunities on campus and more.

044

HOTELS.COM MODEL
A team of students selected annually to be examiners and reporters on the expected experience for all universities.

045

SLIDING SCALE
Pay scale of professors is based on the success of students in that class producing content that can be used in the real world or for future classes.

046

NO RISK SHORT CLASSES

Students take half or quarter classes that are pass/fail for no credit per segment. When they have acquired and passed eight segments, it is considered a full class. Enables students to build their own classes (e.g. psychology, plus history, plus womens study, plus weaving equals a class about tribal African women for an anthropology class credit). If they fail it doesnt go on their record; it only counts if they pass.

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ALLIANCE IDEAS

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F
047 CAUSE CENTRIC EXPERIENCE 048 REAL WORLD MEET-UPS 049 SOCIAL STUDY 050 LIVE DEBATE ON ISSUES 051 TEAM EDITING 052 CROSS-SCHOOL NING 053 COLLEGE CONFIDENTIAL 054 IDENTITY ARTIFACTS 055 COMMUNITY RITUALS 056 QUILTING BEE MODEL

FRATERNITY IDEAS
Provide a relevant community experience and social support for modern learners.

047

CAUSE CENTRIC EXPERIENCE

Create communities of interest around real world challenges and causes. Enable students, mentors and activists to meet, support each other, recommend classes and publish together. Themes may include environmentalism, globalization, mobility, safety and family. The solution area then becomes the lens for every experience at the university. There could even be a clubhouse or embassy for each cause.
Provide cost effective, unique, non-university places in the real world for people to study together. (There are potential risks depending on the market youre serving.)

048

REAL WORLD MEET UPS

049

SOCIAL STUDY
Make studying a social activity; everyone is rewarded for the success and improvement of their study partners.

050

LIVE DEBATE ON ISSUES

Online, transparent debate and participation. Students can therefore learn from any professor or student at any school whether or not you take their course.

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051

TEAM EDITING
Student and professional volunteer editors evaluate online work, moderate online dialogue amongst cohorts in a Facebook-like application and guide people when they are misguided or misunderstand.

052

CROSS-SCHOOL NING
Social networking groups across schools are organized by actual themes and programs, and share materials and lectures with iTunes-like ability to download helpful lectures, TED talks and other relevant content.

053

COLLEGE CONFIDENTIAL

Peers share information about getting into college, details about the community and trade secrets to help each other navigate the process. Archive course information like study notes and previous exams (all the things fraternities do for brothers).
Create new ways to identify like-minded people beyond typical fraternity or sorority markets like a tattoo, code-word or secret hand-shake. This is also a replacement for sports team paraphernalia that is less relevant to nontraditional pre-graduates. This should be something significant, subtle and recognizable to insiders.

054

IDENTITY ARTIFACTS

055

COMMUNITY RITUALS

Instill program-related rituals that bond people like a monthly all-nighter together, a ropes course-type experience, or rockclimbing. These are rituals people can reminisce about and bond over that are also related to specific programs.

056

QUILTING BEE MODEL

Students work together to get one person through a degree at a time; eventually everyone finishes (takes home a degree). This creates a social element and pressure to complete a degree when youre on someone elses dime and time. All participants share the final portfolio of work.

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INTEGRATION IDEAS
Deliver when and where students already are.
057 LEARNING DASHBOARD 058 STUDY SCHEDULE 059 BREAK ROOM JUKEBOX 060 LIKEMIND MODEL 061 COURSES AT CHILDCARE CENTERS 062 ASSISTANT FOR HIRE 063 MOVIE THEATER BROADCAST 064 ARMY RESERVE MODEL 065 COLLEGE AS SANCTUARY 066 LEARNING SABBATICALS 067 BEAUTY SCHOOL MODEL 068 TAX INCENTIVES 069 EDUCATIONAL ESCAPES 070 CLASS ON PUBLIC RADIO 071 UNIVERSITY CHANNEL FOR TREADMILLS 072 LAUNDRY ROOM LEARNING 073 RECRUIT PRE-GRADUATES 074 TARGET PRE-GRADUATES IN SOCIAL NETWORKS 075 MCDONALDS HAMBURGER U MODEL 076 POP-UP CLASSROOMS

057

LEARNING DASHBOARD

Create a simple interface (specialized portal) where people apply and learn on their own. Accessible through a Kindle, PDA or computer. This is for everyone before, during and after degree attainment.
Study is a mandatory part of students class schedule to make sure they plan for it, but can do it anywhere. People fill their calendars around it as they would a class or a doctors appointment.

058

STUDY SCHEDULE

059

BREAK ROOM JUKEBOX

Special jukeboxes play video lectures in break rooms of grocery stores and other environments where people already are with free time on their hands.

060

LIKEMIND MODEL

Plan and generate awareness for study groups meeting in city cafes that are open to all to study together. Broadcast online like Likemind.com.
Create an education environment with childcare or where childcare already exists (like YMCA) that will also likely create natural cohorts of moms and dads.

061

COURSES AT CHILDCARE CENTERS

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062

ASSISTANT FOR HIRE

Help parents organize their lives and spend time on the highest value add things. Offerings such as discounted house cleaners, errand runners, childcare, laundry, chefs and more.

063

MOVIE THEATER BROADCAST

Use off times at theaters to create classrooms in a special but local place for students to learn and connect instead of sitting at home on their computers. This also creates a learning ritual and nurtures happy accidents.
Provide intensive courses on weekends once a month.

064

ARMY RESERVE MODEL

065

COLLEGE AS SANCTUARY
Brand college as a break from everyday life to better yourself, in a similar manner to (and potentially offered at) church. Hold general lectures on screens at megachurches or other existing sanctuaries. Establish learning as something its okay to be selfish about; a mission from God or another higher calling.

066

LEARNING SABBATICALS
Businesses with part-time workforces provide scheduling options for workers to go to school, and cover each others shifts for blocks of time (like a semester, or a month) to allow students to be selfish and completely focus on the learning experience. Organize the sabbatical around a question relevant for student and employer.

067

BEAUTY SCHOOL MODEL

Students clock hours when they can in a lab to really test and utilize their new skills. Students start with case study work, but transition to real clients. Companies outsource some work to these labs at low cost (the way people get cheap haircuts at beauty schools). Jobs may include customer service, accounting, design, market research and more. Trained professionals supervise. Students can work more or less whenever they can, but never fall behind if they log minimum hours (providing they meet paying client deadlines).
Incent businesses to free their employees to go back to school .

068

TAX INCENTIVES

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069

EDUCATIONAL ESCAPES
Design vacations as hyper-intensive university courses (a semester in two weeks).

070

CLASS ON PUBLIC RADIO

Commuters enjoy a dedicated radio channel (or podcasts) with hourly classes, funded by advertisers. Exams or project work are designed to be completed within 30 minutes when they get home. Tests are only available online for the first 24 hours after the course is broadcast to encourage immediate completion of that session.
Students lose weight while they study to get brain and body fit! Play university classes on a dedicated channel on treadmills.

071

UNIVERSITY CHANNEL FOR TREADMILLS

072

LAUNDRY ROOM LEARNING

Leverage the jukebox or broadcast classes to a TV. Broadcast schedules for study meet ups in the laundry room. Combines real life responsibilities and unused time with learning.

073

RECRUIT PRE-GRADUATES
Send recruiters and talent scouts to where pre-graduates work, or open recruiting centers in banks and other places they already go. Recruiters should transition recruits to coaches that support them once they are in the program.

074

TARGET PRE-GRADUATES IN SOCIAL NETWORKS

Based on key words related to their interests, postings and conversations universities can send information to potential students. Pay special attention to friends of alumni.

075

MCDONALDS HAMBURGER U MODEL

Learn through events in context. Design the language and experience that is likely to come from a learning event and help people understand the skills and techniques they are applying, testing and learning. For example, a waitress is getting experience in managing operations, negotiation, customer service, problem-solving and psychology. Create self-guided learning programs that map to real world jobs and experiences.

076

POP-UP CLASSROOMS

Decentralize learning, stimulate spontaneous and fun collaborative learning centers based on themes.They pop up in parks, theaters, empty lots, storefronts and more. Students pay by the class.

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C
077 BYTE-SIZED BOOKS 078 PROGRAM SPECIALIZATION 079 FRANCHISE 080 PACKAGE & DELIVER MEDIA CONTENT 082 TRANSFORM TENURE 083 PROFESSOR ROLE SPECIALIZATION 084 PART TIMERS 085 IMPLEMENT PROFESSIONAL TESTERS 086 IMPLEMENT PROFESSIONAL EDITORS 088 NO CREDIT COUNTING MODEL 089 EXPRESS DEGREE 090 ONLINE ONLY PROFESSORS 091 LEGAL LIMITS 092 CENTRALIZED APPLICATION PROCESS 093 TEAM APPLICATION MODEL 094 UNIVERSITY BUSINESS PARTNERS 095 PRICELINE MODEL 096 KIVA MODEL 097 PAY-AS-YOU-GO MODEL 098 DIY INFRASTRUCTURE 099 BORROW INFRASTRUCTURE 100 BRAND ADVOCATES 101 SEPARATE COURSES FROM CREDIT

COST CUTTING IDEAS

Streamline and rethink expenses to maximize existing meaningful assets, eliminate or repurpose others and make education more affordable for all.

081 SHARE RESOURCES ACROSS DEPARTMENTS

087 IMPLEMENT UNDERGRAD TEACHING ASSISTANTS

077

BYTE-SIZED BOOKS
Digitize all materials and promote downloading to Kindle, computer or PDA. Students only pay for chapters they need for their class (draws on the iTunes model of not buying the whole album). Also allow students to contribute virtual notes to those chapters digitally the way one takes notes in a real text book.

078

PROGRAM SPECIALIZATION
Eliminate programs at colleges that are not within the schools core expertise and strengths. Call for smarter allocation of resources to consolidate and package specific expertise. Universities dont need to have a college for every focus.

079

FRANCHISE
Focus on your best programs, package, brand and franchise them to other universities. Obtain and offer franchised classes from other universities at lower cost, supplementing or replacing your own program investment.

080

PACKAGE & DELIVER MEDIA CONTENT

Create classes or even replace some with quality TV shows or newspaper content like Discovery Channel and NYT courses with professors providing evaluation. This frees professors to do more high value add, income generating activities than lecturing. Provide classes via iTunes.

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081

SHARE RESOURCES ACROSS DEPARTMENTS

Not all departments need duplicate administration, technology infrastructure and support. Centralize services.

082

TRANSFORM TENURE
Rethink tenure so as not to incentivize professors to work towards tenure and then relax. Avoid promoting the safety net or I cant be fired mentality. Require measurement, for instance X hours of work with students or in developing online content to maintain your tenure or honor.

083

PROFESSOR ROLE SPECIALIZATION

Professors must not be and do everything they are required to be and do today. Determine specific focus for each based on strengths. Some are researchers and some are teachers; researchers are a cost, producing new knowledge (product development & marketing); teachers are a P&L center delivering the product of tangible skills, job preparation and usable credentials (the business of universities).

084

PART TIMERS
Teacher professors should have a real day job. Teaching professors is a parttime job and is compensated as such. Consider the large, valuable talent pool. Look at alumni in particular.

085

IMPLEMENT PROFESSIONAL TESTERS

Professors or graduate students administer tests and measurements largely for online course work not requiring lecturing or in depth mentoring or relationships.
Professional editors in a related field edit and evaluate online work versus expensive professors who may be slower and much more expensive.

086

IMPLEMENT PROFESSIONAL EDITORS

087

IMPLEMENT UNDERGRAD TEACHING ASSISTANTS

Undergraduates in the top two percent of their class are invited to teach first year classes to earn discounts for their ongoing classes (not just graduate level TAs) or additional credits toward completion.

088

NO CREDIT COUNTING MODEL

Stop requiring and charging by credits. Provide completion based on a portfolio through a combination of real world and class work with standard criteria, but flexible in completion, examined by a review board of professors, TAs and real world advisors.

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089

EXPRESS DEGREE

Provide shorter, intense courses for serious people. Students can buy into a piece of an established brand an Express Degree is possible by skipping the football games, beer fests, mating and dating. Cutting time can also cut costs. Lectures may be as long and as brilliant as a TED talk, and discussion happens online like a group twitter session or Facebook wall.
Hire professors specifically to support class broadcasts. Lower costs and focus attention on student coaching to support learning. They can be located anywhere, like a beach in Maui. Great professors might choose this post for lifestyle advantage.

090

ONLINE ONLY PROFESSORS

091

LEGAL LIMITS
Change the law to limit the number of colleges students apply to (similar to the UK model). Universities can implement early decision only applications or set the limit accept the first 10,000 applications received within one month.

092

CENTRALIZED APPLICATION PROCESS

All public institutions partner to have one outsourced admissions department. Take names off applications to prevent nepotism like they do with AIDS testing.

093

TEAM APPLICATION MODEL

Student teams of four apply for spots in the university with an actual project to focus learning around (a mini-start up idea they all pursue collectively to get their degree while building their business or a portfolio goal). Cuts the number of admissions reviews necessary. Potentially partner with a VC firm for admissions and a share of the eventual business.

094

UNIVERSITY BUSINESS PARTNERS

Partners provide tuition and early stage funding for student initiatives that could be brought to market, and provide support for those students throughout. Companies use the opportunity as a talent magnet to keep certain promising talent close, provide internships and more.

095

PRICELINE MODEL

Colleges auction off extra available seats in classrooms at a lower cost to students at the price they are willing to pay. Auction unfilled full-time placement, for instance, provide at least 20 spots from most universities for pre-graduates with no admissions approval necessary.
Students pay for college one buck at a time through micro-loans and leveraging social networking platforms, like Facebook Causes, to get money for college. No admissions are necessary for people who receive small funding from the community if the community believes in the student enough to financially support them, so should the university.

096

KIVA MODEL

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097

PAY-AS-YOU-GO MODEL

Break cost and offerings into smaller, bearable learning appetizers which also encourage lifelong learning. Students pay for classes through local franchises broadcasting courses through movie theaters, Starbucks, iTunes or other culturally relevant industry players.
Offer university chores to keep school clean, safe and functioning for deep tuition discounts. Students take out their own trash, drive dump trucks and provide other civil services on campus. Cut campus frills like Southern New Hampshire University give up dining hall meals, gym and team sports to save money on tuition.

098

DIY INFRASTRUCTURE

099

BORROW INFRASTRUCTURE

Cut student centers, classrooms and libraries and use public spaces from cities or private industry spaces relevant to courses to save money.

100

BRAND ADVOCATES

Brands identify brand advocates aligned with their culture and category and support them with advertising like sports stars (think of bike shirts, Nascar cars). Through marketing on their social network sites such as Facebook or Twitter, students become living magazines and their education is paid for by those companies. Universities are the conduit between sponsor and advocate.

101

SEPARATE COURSES FROM CREDIT

Monetize courses and credit separately. Anyone can take the course online, through advertising supported broadcast, or mobile broadcast for your appropriate location (for example, negotiation class could be offered as you walk by a car-dealership). People take classes for free and pay for actual testing and/ or credit.

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COLLABORATORS

Lumina Foundation for Education is committed to enrolling and graduating more students from college especially low-income students, students of color, first-generation students and adult learners. Our goal is to increase the percentage of Americans who hold high-quality degrees and credentials to 60 percent by 2025. Lumina pursues this goal in three ways: by identifying and supporting effective practice, through public policy advocacy, and by using our communications and convening power to build public will for change.
The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of Lumina Foundation for Education, its officers or employees.

CEOs for Cities is a national cross-sector network of urban leaders from the civic, business, academic and philanthropic sectors dedicated to building and sustaining the next generation of great American cities. We support the development of next generation cities by: Identifying first-look trends and circumstances that represent the best opportunities for cities and the people who live in them to succeed Connecting urban leaders to powerful ideas and each other Articulating the value to cities and the nation of improving performance on key urban success measures Mobilizing new urban activists to execute real change in cities Telling powerful stories about the potential of cities to solve our most pressing problems CEOs for Cities works with its network partners to develop great cities that excel in the areas most critical to urban success: talent, connections, distinctiveness and innovation.

KvJ & Company helps companies link emerging and established trends to bold opportunities for growth, innovation and leadership. Our work identifying tomorrows unsolved needs has led companies to reset strategic priorities, reinvent business models, develop new products and solutions, revise marketing and sales approaches, and rethink organizational models. Taking a holistic approach to innovation KvJ & Company reveals opportunities that matter. Our team adapts fluidly to provide the most value to organizations given the tough demands of the marketplace. Our greatest concern is enabling our clients to create their smartest and healthiest business for today and tomorrow.

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PROJECT LEADS
CEOs for CITIES Carol Coletta
President and Chief Executive Officer

Carol Coletta is President and CEO of CEOs for Cities and host and producer of the nationally syndicated public radio show Smart City www.smartcityradio.com. Previously, she served as president of Coletta & Company in Memphis. In addition, she served as executive director of the Mayors Institute on City Design, a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, U.S. Conference of Mayors and American Architectural Foundation. Carol was a Knight Fellow in Community Building for 2003 at the University of Miami School of Architecture. She is a highly sought after speaker on the success formula for cities and creative communities and is frequently interviewed as an expert on urban issues by national media. In 2008 she was named one of the worlds 50 most important urban experts by a leading European think tank. Most recently, she was named the recipient of the Lamda Alpha International 2009 International Journalism Award for her work with CEOs for Cities and Smart City, and as one of the top 50 urban thinkers of all time by readers of PLANetizen.com.

KvJ & Company Katherine von Jan

Managing Partner and Chief Creative Officer

An innovation advisor with over 15 years experience and travel to more than 40 countries, Katherine blends seasoned industry perspective and cultural insight with a fresh outlook on uncovering new and meaningful opportunities. Her work for her clients is wide-ranging and has delved deep into the future of cities, energy, healthcare, media, mobility,

motherhood, plastic, retail, work and more. Katherine is an avid speaker on culture, and her views have been shared on the BBC, MSNBC, NPR, O Magazine, Wired Magazine and more. In addition, she is a guest lecturer at universities including Columbia, Harvard and MIT. She is currently focused on developing opportunities in higher education, and writing her book describing the post-consumption customer.

Courtney Dubin
Innovative Strategist

A cultural investigator and innovation consultant, Courtney Dubin specializes in revealing and maximizing unexpected relationships in the market place. Her professional experience spans over 10 years of growth strategy in interactive and traditional media working in London, Sydney, and New York City. She applies her unique perspective and insight across industries to produce meaningful impact including the recent launch of the FOX Business Network, advising major healthcare providers on opportunities for reinvention in the emerging marketscape and developing Discovery Communications Global Education Partnership to enhance elementary education in the classroom.

Mike Youngblood

Cultural Anthropologist

Mike Youngblood is a cultural anthropologist who works at the intersection of ethnography and design. As a consultant, he studies human interaction with information, products, services, and environments in order to help organizations develop solutions that are more satisfying, usable, useful, and sustainable. His clients represent a broad range of industries, including financial services, transportation, education, social services, telecommunications, food and nutrition, and healthcare. Mike holds a PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

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REFERENCES

A New Community College Concept Paper (2008). The City University of New York Allen, I.A., Seaman, J. (2006), Making the Grade Online Education in the United States Midwestern Edition Attracting College-Educated, Young Adults to Cities (2006). Prepared for CEOs for Cities by The Segmentation Company Callan, P., Ewell, P. (2006) Measuring Up The National Report Card on Higher Education. National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education College Confidential Website http://www.collegeconfidential.com Frey, Carol. Different Paths to a College Degree. U.S. News & World Report September, 2009: 40 Grose, Thomas K. Taking a Page From Britain. U.S. News & World Report September, 2009: 44 Imagine Success Engaging Entering Students (2008 Field Test Studies). Sense Survey of Entering Student Engagement Jacbobson, Ph.D., L., Mokher, Ph.D., C. (2009), Pathways to Boosting the Earnings of Low-Income Students by Increasing Their Educational Attainment. Prepared for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation by The Hudson Institute and CNA Kuh, G., Kinzie, J., Cruce, T., Shoup, R. & Gonyea, R. (2007) Connecting the Dots: Multi-Faceted Analysis of the Relationship between Student Engagement Results from the NSSE, and the Institutional Practices and Conditions That Foster Student Success. Indiana University, Center for Postsecondary Research Lumina Foundation for Education Website http://www.luminafoundation.org

Marcus, David. The Real Secret of College Admissions. U.S.News & World Report September, 2009: 48 New Measures of Student Success in Public Higher Education (2009). Funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education through the University of Virginias Curry School of Education Ning Website http://www.ning.com Pusser, B., Breneman, D., Gansneder, M., Kohl, K., Levin, J., Milam, J. & Turner, S. (2007), Returning to Learning: Adults Success in College is Key to Americas Future. Lumina Foundation for Education New Agenda Series Roth, Daniel. Making Geeks Cool Could Reform Education. Wired Magazine September, 2009 Santora, M. (2009, January, 25). CUNY Plans New Approach to Community College. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/ 2009/01/26/education/26college.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 Soares, L., Mazzeo, C. (1998), College-Ready Students, Student-Ready Colleges An Agenda for Improving Degree Completion in Postsecondary Education. Center for American Progress A Progressive Growth Policy Paper Thomas, D., & Seely Brown, J. (2009), Why Virtual Worlds Can Matter. MIT Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unreported License Volume 1, Number 1 Tito, V. Student Success and the Building of Involving Educational Communities Syracuse University

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2010 CEOs for CITIES ceosforcities.org