IgnitED Newsletter April Edition
Sharing Innovative Approaches to Higher Education
Welcome to the April edition of IgnitED by WGU. This month, WGU president Scott Pulsipher discusses increasing access to education for motivated learners; we share a guide to microcredentials from WGU Labs; and we learn how WGU leaders are advocating for the advancement of nursing education legislation.
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Challenging ‘Bad’ Online Policies and Attitudes
“It’s a red herring if you focus on mode, method or model of instruction. Good policy would actually advance and incentivize delivery against outcomes, not inputs,” WGU president Scott Pulsipher said in a panel at SXSW EDU focused on educational access for learners.
Microcredential Micro-Guide for Higher Education Leaders: Identifying Key Tenets and Types of Programs
Microcredential implementations are rising across the U.S. Over one million credentials have been recorded by the national nonprofit Credential Engine. The focused, competency-based credential provides a way for learners to upskill while they continue to work, driving demand for more institutions to implement these programs.
Advocating for the Advancement of Nursing Education Legislation
Recently, Janelle Sokolowich, academic vice president and dean for the Leavitt School of Health at WGU, had the opportunity to discuss and advocate for the advancement of nursing education legislation.
News We're Reading
Campus Technology: AI and the Future of Writing Instruction
The use of AI for writing and communication presents an inherent contradiction: Those who can best write with AI will be those who can best write without it, because they'll need to be able to write good prompts, evaluate the AI output, and edit the resulting text into a usable final product.
The Hechinger Report: Colleges are Raising Prices Faster on their Lower-Income than their Higher-Income Students
Lower-income students generally still pay less than higher-income ones. But the increase in college costs is falling more heavily on families that are likely the least able to absorb it.
WGU Student Story
Sean James McCauley
M.S. Education Leadership (2016)
Morganville, New Jersey
After years of teaching, Sean McCauley joined the U.S. Air Force as a commissioned officer, working for the Department of Defense as an intelligence analyst before eventually becoming second-in-command. After his service, he returned to New Jersey where he became a captain with the New Jersey Air National Guard. He returned to civilian life, where he organized New Jersey's statewide COVID-19 vaccine initiative in Atlantic City. He is passionate about making meaningful strides to improve citizens' lives through common-sense reform, and he is currently running for Board of Education in Marlboro, New Jersey.
