Northern Arizona University is launching a personalized learning program that will allow motivated students to earn a degree more efficiently through self-paced online learning, credit for prior learning, and curriculum tailored to individual learning styles. The program will start with 500 students in 2013 focusing on degrees in small business administration, computer information technology, and liberal arts, with the goal of expanding to 8000 students within 5 years. The new personalized learning approach faces challenges in gaining approval from accrediting bodies and political resistance to change from supporters of the traditional university model.

1. Creating a University from
Whole Cloth
WCET
11-2-12
Fred Hurst
Senior Vice President
for Extended Campuses
Alison Brown
Associate Vice President

2. The highest activity a human being
can attain is learning for
understanding, because to understand
is to be free.
All things excellent are as difficult as
they are rare.
-Baruch Spinoza

3. Northern Arizona University – Personalized Learning
Northern Arizona University’s
Personalized Learning enables
motivated students to earn a high
quality degree more efficiently and
at a lower cost by customizing
coursework to fit individual
learning styles and previously
acquired knowledge.

4. Northern Arizona University – Personalized Learning
Student Experience
•Self-paced online learning
•Mentor faculty
•Readiness Assessment
•Free developmental modules
•Curriculum is interdisciplinary and
prescribed - there are no electives
•Multiple modalities for every concept

5. Northern Arizona University – Personalized Learning
Student Experience (Continued)
•Predictive learning analytics
•Credit for prior learning
•Pre-assessment
•Interim assessments
•Post-assessment
•Internships and service learning

6. Northern Arizona University – Personalized Learning
Curriculum Design
Lead faculty:
•Deconstruct current NAU courses
learning outcomes and concepts
•Rebuild as interdisciplinary courses
•OER, Cline Library digital materials,
custom developed
•Ongoing Total Quality Management

7. Northern Arizona University – Personalized Learning
Integrated Lesson from Liberal Arts
Demonstrate understanding of rhetorical strategies using
analysis, interpretation, and evaluation.
Topic 1: Apply theories of social conflict in mainstream
media messages, and explain their implications for the target
audience.
Topic 2: Watch a news program of your choice, analyzing
and interpreting the usage of rhetorical strategies.
Topic 3: Analyze and evaluate the rhetorical strategies used
in a published argument about culture, recommending where
strategies could be strengthened.
Mastery: Construct an argument analyzing and evaluating
the media messages contained within a publication of your
choice. Present your findings in a public presentation.

8. Northern Arizona University – Personalized Learning
Business Processes
•Innovative and personalized
•Student may start the program any
day of the year
•$2,500 per six months – all inclusive
(fees, materials, texts)
•Financial aid will be available (after
HLC and DOE approve)
•Subscription model

9. Northern Arizona University – Personalized Learning
Business Processes (Continued)
Two transcripts:
• Traditional transcript
• Enhanced transcript
Initial programs:
•Small Business Administration
•Computer Information Technology
•Liberal Arts

10. Northern Arizona University – Personalized Learning
Aggressive Timetable
•Spring 2013 start date, 500 student
goal in first year
•Three new programs second year
•Masters degrees in third year
•8000 students in five years

11. Northern Arizona University – Personalized Learning
Politics of Change
There is nothing more difficult to take in
hand, more perilous to conduct or more
uncertain in its success than to take the
lead in the introduction of a new order of
things...because the innovation has for
enemies all those who have done well
under the old conditions and lukewarm
defenders in those who do well under the
new.
-Machiavelli, The Prince