Effective Higher Education Conceptual Platform

By Thomas Eklund

As a venture, Effective Higher Education focuses on areas that are related to providing and attaining optimized educational plus professional (EduPlusPro) development results and relevant products and services.

In a nutshell, we address topics that make higher education effective. We will address relevant concepts, products and services and will move from general concepts toward optimizing the results on personal level.

As a tool that is used for development of this venture, Effective Higher Education Conceptual Platform combines interrelated concepts into operational areas of focus. Starting with several questions, below is more information on this platform.

• What makes higher education effective? To put it differently, how should we define effective higher education?
• Considering, that we are addressing jobs that require higher education, here's a related question: how can a person find out, what kind of work is best suited for him or her? What else can we use in addition to aptitude tests to find answers?
• Here's another related question: how can we integrate higher education effectively with professional and personal development?
• And here are couple of more related questions: what kinds of knowledge and skills combinations are likely to be optimal for individual educational and professional development and how can a person attain these optimal knowledge and skills combinations?

On EffectiveHigherEducation.org website we will look for answers to these questions in a methodical way. Usage of research will be part of the process. We will find answers through establishing definitions that serve as working hypotheses that we explore and research.

In accordance with Effective Higher Education Core Principles, the relevant processes will be ongoing. For example, relevant surveys will be conducted on regular bases – some of them annually, others, as needed, more or less frequently. In addition to surveys, other research methods may be used as well.

From general we will proceed toward specific. For example, from establishing and researching general definitions we will proceed toward identifying increasingly personalized solutions.

For this process to work, we also need to use a project development method that both enables to set and achieve objectives and allows to combine exploration of interrelated areas into coherent outcomes. CreativityModel Method provides relevant benefits. We will explore this Method. However, other project management methods can be used equally well that provide the needed benefits.

To work effectively, we need to identify our areas of focus and to integrate the relevant concepts in a usable manner.

Accordingly, Effective Higher Education Conceptual Platform combines the following interrelated concepts into operational areas of focus:

• effective higher education definition related research,
• integration of higher education and professional and personal development, including optimal career identification*,
• knowledge and skills attaining framework related research and resource identification,
• Effective Higher Education Core Principles and
• usage of a project development method that enables to set and to achieve objectives and to explore relevant interrelated areas.

We also need to work on being able to measure relevant areas, especially the skills attained and the value that effective higher education provides to traditional students, adult learners and employers.

Most of this work will proceed through implementation of relevant projects. Projects section contains information on currently open projects and relevant participation opportunities.

* Effective higher education related optimal career identification topics will be addressed on EffectiveHigherEducation.org website next version.

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