Columbia University's Teachers College invites Post University to present on the future of education

EdLab is a research, design, and development unit
at Teachers College at Columbia University

Post University's approach to online higher education has caught the attention of Columbia University's Teachers College EdLab.

EdLab is dedicated to research, design, and development efforts that seek to improve educational services. EdLab Product Manager Joann Agnitti described EdLab as a start-up organization within an academic institution that focuses on educational technologies, including informal, self-directed learning tools. Each week, the EdLab invites faculty, staff, and students to a discussion about current issues in higher education.

Yesterday, Frank Mulgrew, President of the Online Education Institute (OEI) of Post University, led an EdLab session in the free-form, collaborative EdLab space within Columbia's Gottesman Libraries center in New York. He opened with a little history about the University, explaining that the school was founded in 1890 as the Mattoon Shorthand School. He talked about how it's since evolved over the past 120+ years into a NEASC-accredited, traditional four-year University located in Waterbury, Conn., and is the largest provider of fully online higher education in the state.

The folks at EdLab were particularly interested in Post University's approach to providing online higher education. Frank explained that the University's initial intent was to incorporate the services and experiences of its online adult learners with those of its traditional campus-based students. However, it quickly became apparent that this was not practical because the two groups of students had very different needs. OEI was formed to consolidate all the services needed to support the University's growing population of online and hybrid students.

6 activities to improve children's language development

Most children learn how to listen, speak, read, and write from birth through grade three. They typically begin to use literacy as a learning tool in the middle to the end of third grade. Children who are reading and writing "on grade level" by the end of third grade are expected to be successful students.

But over my years of working in the field of early childhood education, I have seen many young children who are not engaged in enough meaningful conversations with the adults in their lives. They're entering school with smaller vocabularies than in the past.

This has been found to impact children later in life. Children who are not fluent readers by fourth grade are more likely to struggle with reading in adulthood. In fact, a study by The Annie E. Casey Foundation found students who don't read proficiently by third grade are four times more likely to leave school without a diploma when compared to proficient readers.

Parents can do more to improve their children's language development -- and it starts at birth. Language development is most profound during a child's first three years of life. It's a crucial time to expose children to words and books as often as possible.

A recipe for success after getting your MBA degree

So you got your MBA degree. You've spent countless hours learning the principles of business administration and management. You've created a business plan or other proposal that you think will have legs. Now what?

If you're like most MBA graduates, you got your MBA degree because you want to advance your career, start your own business, or position yourself to earn a better salary. Now that you have the education under your belt, how do you start turning these goals into reality?

You might be feeling overwhelmed right now. Or you might have a clear picture in your head as to what your next move will be. No matter where you're at, though, there are a few pointers you should keep with you as a compass for guiding you to success after completing your MBA degree (or any degree, really).

I got to thinking about these pointers a couple of months ago. The holidays are always a good time to reflect on the conversations I've had with students and faculty, and use them as a guide for future curriculum and course design. In the midst of my thoughts, an idea struck me.

There are many ingredients that I believe go into having a successful future after completing your MBA degree. I started jotting these ingredients down, and before I knew it, I had essentially come up with a recipe for success upon completing an MBA degree. Looking it over, I thought that this recipe would actually apply after completing almost any graduate degree as well.

Then I thought, how can I share this with graduates to help guide them to their goals after earning their degree? I showed the recipe to some others at Post University, and we came up with the idea of turning it into an infographic that graduates can share, bookmark, print out, and hang up to remind themselves of how they can be successful now that they've completed their higher education.

So, that's just what we did. We've created the infographic below to give you a recipe for success after getting your MBA or other graduate degree.

Big reveal: Our latest cartoon caption contest winner!

When we ran our most recent cartoon caption contest, we promised there would be some fun prizes up for grabs. Well, those prizes are about to be grabbed, because we've selected the winner!

We mulled over the responses you submitted to complete a cartoon drawn by our contributing cartoonist, Dave Blazek, mastermind behind the "Loose Parts" cartoon strip. We whittled them down to the top three that made us laugh the most. Then we polled our team to see which one got the most votes. We had a clear winner. This caption really stuck out as witty, clever, and creative -- just what we were looking for!

The winner of our cartoon caption contest is Chris Kales! We've added his caption into the cartoon. Take a look!

We've already contacted Chris to tell him the good news. This was his reaction when he found out he won:

Help for conquering the fear of change and the unknown in your career

Many people fear change and the unknown. They don't like to step outside of their comfort zone, whether they're fully satisfied in that position or not. And it's no different when it comes to their career. Some think that because they don't know what's going to happen to them, they shouldn't make a move to get a better job or switch careers to follow their passion. They don't want to take a risk.

Me with Toure Diggs, Post University MBA Class of '10

It's important to remember you don't have to know what's going to happen to you in your career. You should find what you love, and do it. And if that take two, three, four, or more tries, well, that's part of the journey.

One of our graduates, Toure Diggs, is on his third try now. He graduated from Post University's Online MBA Degree Program in 2010. He sent us a note about how he's doing today, and it made me think, here's someone who's dealt with change head on, and look where it's taken him today. I wanted to share it with you as some advice for overcoming the fear of change and the unknown in your career.

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My MBA story is probably a bit different than others, because I really always gravitated towards social work. It's what my undergraduate degree was in at Post University in Waterbury, Conn., a small 120-year-old institution which was a perfect on-campus experience for me. After graduation in the 90s, I launched into a career in social work.

In the mid-2000s, I was inspired to further my education because I needed to expand my options in life as my family was growing and my own hunger to grow as a person increased. While working with my current employer, Continuum of Care, I realized I needed a master's degree to further my career.

Although I have a genuine love and care for people, I love business and entrepreneurship just as much. I struggled with which degree to pursue -- a master's in social work (MSW) or a master's in business administration (MBA) -- because I spent 15 years in social work and was currently working in the social work field. I also have a lot of experience in real estate, and I am an entrepreneur at heart, but felt I needed some formal education in business.

What you should know about your personality to get the perfect job, get along better with your colleagues, and negotiate the best salary

You'll be working with a range of people and personalities in almost any job you'll have in your lifetime. Some you'll get along with better than others. That's just the nature of most work environments. But one key way to be successful in your career is to know your personality, know how to understand others' personalities, and learn how to interact with people who are different from you so you can work together effectively.

That was the big take away from the first session of our new Management Development program. We kicked it off the other week to help train and cultivate our growing number of managers to ensure we can continue to manage university growth while staying focused on serving our students.

Our guest of honor for our first training session was Shoya Zichy, internationally recognized author and speaker on team building and leadership. (You might remember we recommended one of her books, "Career Match," on our blog.) Shoya is known for her energetic, entertaining seminars, and she did not disappoint.

Super Bowl XLVI: Lessons to be learned, part II

An estimated 177 million viewers -- or more than 56 percent of the current U.S. population -- watched at least six minutes of Super Bowl XLVI. That staggering statistic should set aside any doubt about the popularity of football ... and what a huge moneymaker it is for all parties involved.

While the Giants were celebrating and the Patriots were recovering on Super Bowl Monday, the Post University Sport Management Club gathered to share some research on just how big this event is from an economic standpoint. Through a series of impressive presentations during the inaugural "Post University Super Bowl Seminar," the club and its faculty advisors discussed The Big Game's impact at both the national and local levels.

Here are a few facts that demonstrate the scope of the Super Bowl from a financial point of view:

• Every player of the winning team received an $88,000 bonus. The "losers" got $44,000. That's more than $8,500,000 above and beyond player salaries.

• Estimates of income generated within the host city of Indianapolis range from $200 million to $500 million, depending on who you talk to. The NFL likes to quote the higher number.