How ‘personalized learning’ can put college in reach for nontraditional students

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Next, we conclude our special
education series Rethinking College.


Tonight, how one university offers customized learning to fit the
busy lives of nontraditional students.


Hari Sreenivasan has our report, part of our weekly segment
Making the Grade.


HARI SREENIVASAN: Terence Burley lives on the
Navajo reservation in Northern Arizona, a place where college
often seems beyond the horizon.


TERENCE BURLEY, Personalized Learning
Student, Northern Arizona University: I wanted to go to college,
and it didn’t work out.


HARI SREENIVASAN: Only 7 percent of residents on
the reservation get college degrees.


TERENCE BURLEY: It was a money issue. My parents
weren’t really making a lot of money.


HARI SREENIVASAN: Now a 42-year-old father,
Terence is pursuing his bachelor’s degree, hoping to advance his
career in computer technology.


TERENCE BURLEY: I want to make myself more
marketable.


HARI SREENIVASAN: Burley is using federal grants
to pay tuition at Northern Arizona University, a campus that is
160 miles away.


He’s enrolled in an unusual online program called personalized
learning.


Rita Cheng is the president of Northern Arizona University.


RITA CHENG, President, Northern Arizona
University: Personalized learning is a perfect approach to
students who may have competency they have gained from their work
experience. It is a demonstration of mastery.


HARI SREENIVASAN: The program allows Terence to
quickly move through college courses because it’s based on a
subscription, like Netflix. Students pay one flat fee every six
months, and take as many courses as they have time for.


RITA CHENG: If they can master something very
quickly, they can speed through segments of the curriculum.


HARI SREENIVASAN: Terence is studying
information technology, and as a software administrator, he’s
been able to use what he’s learned on the job to advance.


TERENCE BURLEY: The courses reemphasizes what
you know already. I’m tested for my competency. If I pass my
test, I’m able to pass my courses.


HARI SREENIVASAN: He must still take the core
curriculum required of all on-campus university students.


Cori Gordon is the coordinator for NAU’s personalized learning
program.


CORI GORDON, Personalized Learning
Coordinator, Northern Arizona University:
Everything is online, and it was all curated by a professor. We
will use online textbooks. We use videos. We use case studies. We
use simulations, interactive software.


What’s different about us, though, is that the students really
have the keys. So, everything is available when the student
starts, and they determine when they’re ready to move on to the
next concept. They determine when they’re ready to take the test.


HARI SREENIVASAN: But there are challenges with
Terence Burley’s remote learning. He lives in his mother’s house,
which currently has no electricity or Internet.


TERENCE BURLEY: I use my cell phone to get
connected. And on a good day, I usually get two bars.


HARI SREENIVASAN: When his laptop runs out of
power, Burley recharges it by plugging into his truck. And his
day is long.


TERENCE BURLEY: Usually, I wake up at 4:00 in
the morning, be on the road by 4:30 a.m. I get home. By 6:00
p.m., I start my class again from 8:00 p.m. up to 10:00 p.m.


RITA CHENG: There are so many working adults.
This allows students to go at their own pace, balance their
family, work and stay on the job, demonstrate what they have
learned in their career, and complete the degree.


HARI SREENIVASAN: Northern Arizona University
was the first public college to receive accreditation and federal
aid for four-year degree students who can move through courses by
proving competencies.


But the program is still very small. So far, only 172 students
have graduated.


Selina Larson is one of them. Selina graduated on the same day as
her 22-year-old daughter, Raven. Larson decided on personalized
learning after her daughter began classes at NAU’s Flagstaff
campus.


SELINA LARSON, Graduate, Northern Arizona
University: I said, you know what, I’m going back to school, and
I’m going to finish before you.


HARI SREENIVASAN: Larson did graduate before
Raven, by five hours.


RAVEN LARSON, Graduate, Northern Arizona
University: Here’s my hero graduating from college.


SELINA LARSON: Five hours before you.


HARI SREENIVASAN: Larson did all the course work
for a liberal arts bachelor’s degree at their family home in
Phoenix. It took her three years.


SELINA LARSON: I did appreciate having my own
timeline. I think that gives you a lot of control, but you have
to be very motivated.


HARI SREENIVASAN: The university points to
anecdotal success stories, but there’s been little research to
show if this new way of learning benefits students. And, for
Larson, the process wasn’t always easy. There were technical
glitches.


SELINA LARSON: There could be a struggle with
software, where something just went wrong. It doesn’t open. And
you can’t get in, and their I.T. can’t help you. So you’re going
around in circles sometimes. There’s no office to go to, to talk
to somebody.


HARI SREENIVASAN: President Cheng acknowledges
early problems with the software, but says technology has been
improving.


RITA CHENG: Every year, we’re getting better
with the technology. And NAU has always been known to adapt to
the latest in technology, and we will continue.


HARI SREENIVASAN: President Cheng herself was a
nontraditional student, relying on the U.S. post office and
correspondence courses for much of her college work.


RITA CHENG: I spent seven years and five
universities getting a bachelor’s degree. Affordability and
access were always important to me.


HARI SREENIVASAN: For Selina Larson, the
bachelor’s degree has given her new confidence.


SELINA LARSON: We’re just this huge, prideful
family right now.


She was super, super proud. I don’t know that it changed how she
saw me, but I know that she has, like, this huge sense of pride
that I have in her, now she has in me.


HARI SREENIVASAN: And while Terence Burley
estimates he still has two years to go, he believes a bachelor’s
degree is finally within reach.


TERENCE BURLEY: I will just take it course by
course, and, eventually, I will get there.


HARI SREENIVASAN: For the PBS NewsHour, I’m Hari
Sreenivasan.


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