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Investing in Education Won't Necessarily Pay Off Job-Wise

Education vs. Employment

By IGI Global on Aug 28, 2013
Contributed by Myla Merkel, Editorial Director

“No longer does a bachelor's degree guarantee a secure job, enough income to buy a house or the opportunity to advance in a career. These days, a degree is often associated with debt, unemployment and the need to get another degree in order to get a good job,” Ben Gersten writes in his article “The Scary Reality of the Student Loan Bubble” on Money Morning. As illustrated in Gersten's article, even throughout the recent recession, students felt investing in school might give them the upper hand in the future. (Below.) Unfortunately, this has not been the case.

Education Vs. Employment

There is no denying the ever growing cost of college education these days. In a recent speech at the University of Buffalo, President Barack Obama pinpointed higher education costs as one of the explanations for the growing debt of the middle class, stating that the average student has $26,000 in student loan debt when they graduate.

According to the New York Times, Obama’s proposal for the 2015 school year aims to rate colleges based on tuition, graduation rates, debt and earnings of graduates, and the percentage of lower-income students who attend. These ratings would compare colleges against their peer institutions.

Recently, IVN.US reported that according to the Department of Labor that with an ever-growing $1.1 trillion student debt crisis composed of 38 million borrowers, college tuition has experienced a significant cost increase for the past 30 + years, more so than medical care and the consumer price index.

Will Obama’s plan be effective for lowering student debt? One strategy utilizes the use of the internet and the growth of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) as a model for providing a lower cost alternative for colleges and universities. MOOCs and virtual learning environments have been dubbed the “future of the university” by providing large-scale interactive participation and open access for interactive forums that help to build a community for students and professors.

IGI Global recently released an article titled “Factors Affecting the Design and Development of a Personal Learning Environment: Research on Super-users”, by Professor Helene Fournier and Professor Rita Kop of the National Research Council of Canada. This article discusses the evolution of Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) and the identification process of what potential users would consider important components, applications, and tools. In the article, Fournier and Kop state:

“Each learner is unique and will have a unique learning experience. This has instigated the research and development of a different type of learning environment, a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) that is controlled by the learner. The needs, requirements and experience of each learner using a PLE will be different, which makes the planning and development of a PLE that serves as an aid to each possible learner a challenge.”

Published in the International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments, this article highlights the use of existing tools, applications, and systems and the preferences in learning in order to enhance the development of a PLE and reach a specification that potential learners will find useful and empowering. In support of this timely article, IGI Global is offering open access to “Factors Affecting the Design and Development of a Personal Learning Environment: Research on Super-users”. To access this free download, please visit: https://www.igi-global.com/free-content/60125

Edited by Professors Krista Terry and Amelia Cheney of Appalachian State University, the International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments provides comprehensive coverage of the developments in learning technologies for an international readership of educators, technologists, and trainers.

Individual journal articles are also available for purchase through IGI Global's InfoSci®-OnDemand, which allows full-text searching through our entire collection of thousands of research articles, book chapters, and teaching cases.
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EducationAdult LearningTechnologies in Higher EducationVirtual Learning EnvironmentsWeb-Based Teaching & LearningArticlesInfoSci-JournalsJournalsFree ContentNorth AmericaAuthor NewsResources for InstructorsResources for LibrariansResources for Researchers

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