1. Post University: Past, Present, and Future Rosina Panico Post University EDU 505

2. Post University: Our Mission “Our mission is to provide students with the knowledge, personal skills and experiences required to become leaders in their chosen careers. We prepare students to become confident, competent, and competitive participants in the global marketplace (Post University, 2015).

3. Post University: Then Post University was originally founded in 1890 as the Matoon Shorthand School. In 1897 Harry C. Post took over the school as Principal and renamed the institution, the Waterbury Business College. In 1931 the school changed the name to Post College and then to Post Jr. College of Commerce in 1962. It was in the same year that the school acquired its current location on 800 Country Club Road Waterbury, CT. In 1970 the school became Post College, a four year learning institution of higher education (Post University, 2015). The school is still there today.

4. Post University Now Post University has expanded to offer education not only to Connecticut but also globally. Offering online courses has brought the university into the 21 st century. Of the new technologies, Post University uses the BYOD (bring your own devices) and the flipped classroom approach (New Media Consortium, 2015). Students that attend classes online have to use some sort of laptop or computer to successfully complete their assignments. Discussion Board is a form of a flipped classroom as the instructor and the classmates can learn from each other and can share their experiences. Another form of technology the university uses are ECM’s or electronic course materials. The university also offers ebscohost, which is an online library made accessible to every student for research.

5. Futuring Futuring, a concept used by every organization to keep up with the ever changing world. So what is futuring and why is it so important. Futuring is the science of exploring and evaluating probable future possibilities or alternate “futures” (Boyd, 2011). In other words it is a strategic move made by many organization to try and predict future outcomes so they are not left behind.

6. Scenarios and Scanning Scenarios are used to try and predict the future by giving us some type of plan to follow. They are used to “help us conceive new possibilities to explore wildly different alternatives, and to integrate many different factors into our thinking about the future (Boyd, 2011). Scanning includes monitoring, evaluation, and distributing information from external and internal environments to keep people within the organization (Babatunde & Adebisi, 2012).

7. Technology Trends Some of the educational trends that Post utilizes are mobile devices which include smartphones, laptops and tablets. One of the apps that Post uses is the Blackboard app. This app allows students to check their course, download assignments, and be able to read assignments in the discussion board. This app allows students to stay connected even with their busy schedules. The app can allow a student to keep up with the reading while on break at work or while sitting on the bus to and from work or even while traveling (Blackboard Inc, 2010).

8. The rising cost of higher education has been a subject of concern for several decades (Kimball, 2014). There have been many discussions about the rise of tuition cost “but little has been learned about how to contain it” (Kimball, 2014). Is has been proven that college graduates out perform their peers with less education (Pew Research Center, 2014). The Millennial college graduates ages 25-32 who work full time annually earn about $17,500 more than their coworkers who only have a high school diploma (Pew Research Center, 2014. Among 25-32 year olds 9 out 10 people stated that their degree has already paid off or will pay off in the future (Pew Research Center, 2014). So in the end, the overall verdict to the famous question, “Does College pay off in the end?” the answer is a clear yes.

9. Policy Donald Heller identified three major challenges that higher education would face in the upcoming years: Affordability, Access, and Accountability (Conner & Rabovsky, 2011). Over the last decade, the performance of American public colleges and universities has become a concern. The average 4 year institution graduates less than 60% of its students within 6 years and considerably worse in schools with racial minorities (Conner & Rabovsky, 2011). As a result, there has been great concern about the ability of US institutions of higher learning to respond to societal needs for highly trained professionals and to advance goals of the economic opportunity and racial progress (Conner & Rabovsky, 2011). The concerns have increased the cost of college tuition, which push the completion beyond the reach of many students (Conner & Rabovsky, 2011).

10. Utilize more technology in classrooms and online like WebEx, Electronic Course Materials and Skype 3D Virtual Classrooms Adding more majors and minors Continue partnering up with other schools to expand Post Globally Offer scholarships to online students

11. Plan to Action Post needs to continue to grow the Post name by partnering up with other traditional schools and incorporating online courses. Post will need to expand technologies into the “classroom” either online or traditionally. By 2020 all student textbooks should be Electronic Course Materials so students are prepared when class starts Post needs to start looking into 3D technology. This will keep students more engaged in the Online classroom.

12. Reference Babatunde, B. O., & Adebisi, A. O. (2012). Strategic Environmental Scanning and Organization Performance in a Competitive Business Environment. Economic Insights - Trends & Challenges, 64(1), 24-34. Boyd, L. C. (2011). Exploring Alternative Futures. Green Teacher, (94) 35-38 Fetsch, R.J. (1990). Toward the Cutting Edge with Strategic Planning and Futuring Techniques. Journal of Counseling & Development, 68(6), 692 New Media Consortium. (2015). NMC horizon report: 2015 higher education edition. New Media Consortium. Post University. (2015). History. Retrieved from www.post.edu: http://www.post.edu/about/history.www.post.eduhttp://www.post.edu/about/history.

13. Reference page continued Blackboard Inc. (2010). Blackboard mobile learn. Retrieved from www.blackboard.comwww.blackboard.com Conner, T.W., & Rabovsky, T.M. (2011). Accountability, Affordability, Access: A Review of the Recent Trends in Higher Education Policy Research. Policy Studies Journal, 3993-112. Doi:10.1111/j.1541-0072.2010.00389_7. Kimball, B. k. (2014). The Rising Cost of Higher Education: Charles Eliot's "Free Money" Strategy and the Beginning of Howard Bowen's "Revenue Theory of Cost," 1869-1979. Journal Of Higher Education, 85(6), 886-912 Pew Research Center. (2014, February 11). Education: The Rising Cost of Not Going to College/Pew Research Center. Retrieved September 27, 2015, from www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/2/11/the-rising-cost-of-not-going-to-college www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/2/11/the-rising-cost-of-not-going-to-college Post University. (2015). History. Retrieved from www.post.edu: http://www.post.edu/about/history.www.post.eduhttp://www.post.edu/about/history. Post University. (2015). Tuition and Financial Aid. Retrieved from www.post.edu/tuition-and-financial-aid/tuition/campuswww.post.edu/tuition-and-financial-aid/tuition/campus