Thank You

Thanks to the schools who are putting their students first.  Thanks to the colleges that have spent a little bit of money making sure their learners experience goes beyond the classroom or the LMS.  Thanks to the university leaders who have read the work of Dweck, Brown, Lieberman, McGonigal, Rose, or Medina, enacting what it takes to help students succeed, whatever that may mean.

Thanks to the researchers and thought leaders who have shown us the power of grit, the enabling influence of a growth mindset, the influence of a social network, the freedom of a paradigm that does not try to average humans, or the strength of learning with the brain as a filter.

Thanks to those who didn’t take their eye off the ball.  To the people who were over-promised and under-delivered around data a decade ago, but who stayed the course and are now using actionable measures via big data to promote meaningful results, thank you.  To those who never gave up on the MOOC craze, finally figuring out how to use large-scale learning experiences to help students, thank you.  To those who not only embraced, but operationalized those “non-cognitive” skills, helping students with the 80% of life that sits outside the classroom, thank you.

Thanks to the parents who are holding colleges and universities accountable for more than a grade or an exam score, but for success and everything that means.  Thanks to the students who are going beyond the grade or the score to find ways to integrate what they have learned with what they want to do, who they want to be, or how they want to live.  Thanks to the instructors who know that learning has almost nothing to do with grades, far more to do with outcomes, and everything to do with application so as to better a life.

Thanks to the vendors who want to make a better experience or create a better platform for success for students across all colleges.  Thanks to the IT experts who try to integrate first, create student-centric systems, listen and then work to help administrators who want to do right by learners, thereby creating foundations of learning versus disparate, unhelpful but highly controllable systems.  Thanks to the educators who are putting learning and outcomes and transformation above politics, above personal agenda, and above the comfort of replicating what you were shown to find what actually works.

Thanks to everyone who sacrifice for students, working long hours, answering hard (or maybe just tedious) questions, seeing where they can get instead of where they are.  Thanks for giving first generation college students support even when families aren’t sure how.  Thanks for giving returning students help because it’s been a while.

Thanks from the Campus team.

Happy Thanksgiving.