The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) is an interstate compact that was founded in 1955, when six visionary New England governors – realizing that the future prosperity of New England rested on higher education – committed their states to the shared pursuit of academic excellence. Soon thereafter, NEBHE was approved by New England’s six state legislatures and authorized by the U.S. Congress. NEBHE serves the six New England states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.A sample of NEBHE’s work through the years on behalf of New England’s educators, legislators, policymakers, students, and parents include:1955: NEBHE is established to implement the New England Higher Education Compact, expand educational opportunity and foster cooperation among the region’s colleges and universities.1957: NEBHE establishes the New England Regional Student Program (or Tuition Break), enabling New England students to pay a lower tuition rate at out-of-state public land-grant universities within New England if they pursue certain academic programs that are not offered by their home state’s public institutions. The RSP would invite community and technical colleges in 1967 and state colleges in 1972, and later transition to the name Tuition Break.1979: NEBHE creates the Commission on Higher Education and the Economy of New England, comprising college presidents, labor officials, professors, bank executives, publishers and business leaders. It is the first of several NEBHE commissions to hold conferences and release publications on diverse issues such as biotechnology, distance learning, international competitiveness, the legal profession, human capital and higher ed retirement plans.1986: NEBHE begins publishing its quarterly journal, Connection: New England’s Journal of Higher Education and Economic Development. In 2007, the journal is rebranded as The New England Journal of Higher Education, and in 2010, moves entirely online to nebhe.org.1993: NEBHE creates the New England Technical Education Partnership, bringing together educators and other professionals to improve New England’s two-year technical education programs, which ultimately advances “problem-based learning.”1999: NEBHE and the John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Massachusetts Boston conduct The Future of New England survey asking 1,000 New England opinion leaders and 1,000 New England households their views on pressing public policy issues, regional economic prospects and opportunities for interstate action in New England.2002: NEBHE initiates a series of three conferences addressing key issues and challenges in workforce development, culminating in a policy report titled Building Human Capital: A New England Strategy, which recommends steps to improve science and math teaching in New England schools, expand adult literacy programs and reform community colleges.2003: NEBHE launches the New England Higher Education Excellence Awards to honor New England individuals and organizations who show exceptional leadership in behalf of higher education, public policy or the advancement of educational opportunity.2006: NEBHE launches its College Ready New England initiative to encourage more New England students to prepare for, enroll in and graduate from New England colleges and universities.2012: NEBHE and the Davis Educational Foundation convene more than 400 academic, philanthropic and education leaders in a series of discussions to explore innovative strategies identified by regional leaders to address cost and affordability issues challenging the region’s institutions and its students. NEBHE then works with the foundation to launch the Higher Education Innovation Challenge.2015: NEBHE launches the New England component of the national State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement(SARA), funded by generous grants from the Lumina Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Accredited degree-granting institutions in a SARA state that offer distance education courses can then seek approval from their state to participate in SARA. NEBHE now coordinates SARA for all six New England states, as well as New York and New Jersey.2017: NEBHE launches the Commission on Higher Education & Employability. Chaired by Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, the Commission brings together employers and higher education leaders, as well as policy leaders, to ramp up efforts aimed at bolstering the region’s workforce future.2018: Lumina Foundation awarded NEBHE a grant to launch High Value Credentials for New England (HVCNE) in partnership with Credential Engine. As part of HVCNE, higher education institutions and other credential providers across the region are publishing credentials awarded in four areas (life-/bioscience, health, IT, and business & finance) to the Credential Registry, a cloud-based library that houses, organizes, and links credential information. The Credential Registry uses the Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL), which provides a common set of terms to describe credentials and allows machines to use a readable language that can be used to build customized apps or integrate data. The overarching goal of HVCNE is to provide an infrastructure that increases the transparency of the credential marketplace so that prospective credential-seekers and employers can easily assess critical information about the meaning of various credentials. Further, Registry data has already begun to inform the region's public policy decisions around workforce development, career pathways, and strategies to meet attainment goals..
Problem-based learning (PBL) is an educational approach whereby students learn course content by actively and collaboratively solving real-world problems presented in a context similar to that in which the learning is to be applied. Research shows that PBL improves student learning and retention, critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and the ability to skillfully apply knowledge to new situations – skills deemed critical to lifelong learning. Used extensively in medical education since the 1970’s, and widely adopted in other fields including business, law, and education, PBL is emerging as an alternative to traditional lecture-based courses in engineering and technology education. In today’s ever-changing global economy where photonics technicians are required to work productively in teams to solve complex problems across disciplines as well as cultures, PBL represents an exciting alternative to traditional lecture-based photonics education. In this paper we present the PHOTON PBL project, a National Science Foundation Advanced Technology Education (NSF-ATE) project aimed at creating, in partnership with the photonics industry and university research labs from across the US, a comprehensive series of multimedia-based PBL instructional resource materials and offering faculty professional development in the use of PBL in photonics technology education. Quantitative and qualitative research will be conducted on the effectiveness of PBL in photonics technician education.
The increasing connection among higher education institutions worldwide is well documented. What is less understood is how this connectivity is enacted and manifested on specific levels of the global education network. This book details the planning process of a multi-institutional program in engineering between institutions in the US and Singapore as they develop a new model of collaboration. Contrary to what neoliberal or center-to-periphery narratives of globalization might lead us to expect, strong national and local governments, culture, and social relationships all play determining roles in the negotiations and resulting form of collaboration between these higher education institutions. "Shifting Tides in Global Higher Education" illuminates the value of examining particular places, incorporating diverse local experience into the narrative of global networks.
Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional approach whereby students learn course content by collaboratively solving complex real-world problems and reflecting on their experience. Research shows that PBL improves student knowledge and retention, motivation, problem-solving skills, and the ability to skillfully apply knowledge in new situations. One of the challenges with PBL, however, is that real-world problems are typically open-ended with more than one possible solution, which poses a challenge to educators with regard to assessing student performance. In this paper, we describe an approach to assessing student performance in PBL developed by the Photon PBL Project, a three-year National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education (NSF-ATE) project in which eight interdisciplinary multimedia PBL "Challenges" were created in collaboration with photonics industry and university partners for use in high school and college math, science and technology courses. Assessment included measures of content knowledge, conceptual knowledge, problem-solving skills, motivation, self-efficacy, and metacognitive ability. Results from pilot testing at four community college photonics technology programs are presented.
Problem-based learning (PBL) is an educational approach whereby students learn course content by actively and collaboratively solving real-world problems presented in a context similar to that in which the learning is to be applied. Research shows that PBL improves student learning and retention, critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and the ability to skillfully apply knowledge to new situations – skills deemed critical to lifelong learning. Used extensively in medical education since the 1970’s, and widely adopted in other fields including business, law, and education, PBL is emerging as an alternative to traditional lecture-based courses in engineering and technology education. In today’s ever-changing global economy where photonics technicians are required to work productively in teams to solve complex problems across disciplines as well as cultures, PBL represents an exciting alternative to traditional lecture-based photonics education. In this paper we present the PHOTON PBL project, a National Science Foundation Advanced Technology Education (NSF-ATE) project aimed at creating, in partnership with the photonics industry and university research labs from across the US, a comprehensive series of multimedia-based PBL instructional resource materials and offering faculty professional development in the use of PBL in photonics technology education. Quantitative and qualitative research will be conducted on the effectiveness of PBL in photonics technician education.
Rather than focus narrowly on photonics technician training, projects PHOTON and PHOTON2 have developed instructional materials for the widest possible use across a range of educational levels and science and technology disciplines.
