With the advent of such modes of information sharing and communications as internet databases, instant messaging, or smartphones, the modern lifestyle has evolved at a rapid pace. To remain accessible and relevant, higher education has also had to undergo adaptation -- a process that has led to the growing success of accredited online universities.
Longevity for such institutions has largely depended on listening to the needs of the nontraditional students and meeting them head on. For this reason, CSU Global hosted its first ever virtual conference, “Addressing the New Majority: Modern Approaches for Nontraditional Students.” Faculty, administrators, nontraditional students, education nonprofits and philanthropists, education technology companies, and business leaders from Colorado and beyond were in attendance.
“Our desire is to lead and create new paradigms for online education,” Dr. Becky Takeda-Tinker, CSU Global’s president, said in her keynote presentation. She noted four factors that have translated to her success and the university’s ability to stay technologically current:
- Embrace diversity beyond what has been done before.
- Treat all funds and money as a sacred resource.
- Drive organizational efficiency.
- Take calculated risks by testing ideas on a small scale before devoting extensive resources to them.