Dr. Michelle R. Weise discusses why a college degree is not the only path to upward mobility. She’ll elaborate on the disruptive potential of online competency-based education (CBE) and why it’s not a passing fad. The context around higher education has shifted so dramatically and the cost of that college diploma is so high that there now have emerged compelling, new and alternative learning pathways and micro-credentials for a growing set of nontraditional students who desire on-demand access to critical education for our ever-evolving knowledge economy. She’ll explain why online competency-based providers in particular are best suited to create some of those powerful levers for social mobility.
---------------
Through a merging of the traditional “talk summary” and spoken word poetry, Dr. Jamila Lyiscott will present a concluding talk/performance that draws from African American oral art and hip-hop culture. The presentation/performance will address key themes, trends, and questions from Dr. Michelle Weise’s talk in ways that provoke and challenge while bringing underlying themes that are at the core of the discussion to the fore. This approach to academic work uses the voice as a tool not just for concretizing key themes, but also for presenting them in ways that highlight under-focused dimensions of the speaker’s talk.