Leveraging technology can enhance individualized personal learning, says Scott Pulsipher, president of Western Governors University, which describes itself as an “online education built for life.”
Pulsipher joined WorkingNation’s editor-in-chief Ramona Schindelheim for an interview for WorkingNation Overheard at JFF Horizons in Washington, D.C.
He poses the question to the education community, “How are we always adapting and advancing the curriculum to be relevant to the world of work? Certainly, technology is increasing the pace of that change.
“We know the shelf life of skills is declining or the knowledge is declining, meaning you’re going to have to make sure that what you’re learning in our curriculum is directly relevant to the opportunities you see within the next three- to five-year horizon. Maybe two- to three-year horizon. Maybe one- to two-year horizon in the future.”
Pulsipher says about WGU, “Rather than trying to admit those that we think are going to do really, really well in our standardized model, we try to flip that around and say, how do we adapt to serve every individual? So, it almost feels like to that one student, the whole of the university, the whole of WGU was designed exclusively for them.
“That’s a very different approach than most traditional higher education where they can focus on those admissions criteria – who are the individuals we’re looking for to fill out the class to assume that we’re going to get the best of the best. We kind of reject all that notion and say, ‘Actually, isn’t everyone top talent?’”
Learn more about Western Governors University.
WorkingNation Overheard at JFF Horizons 2024 was made possible through funding from EnGen.
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Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.
Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.
Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.
Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.
Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.
Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.
