 Let me welcome you welcome everybody to the future trends forum. I'm delighted to see and hear all of you today My name is Brian Alexander. I'm your host the cat herder and the creator of the forum And I'm really excited about today's guest We have a terrific person a great leader in higher education and covering some really really important topics Let me now introduce this week's guest. I'm absolutely delighted to introduce dr. Amy Novak She's the president of Dakota Wesleyan University She is a relatively new president there the first woman president of Dakota Wesleyan and She is raring to go with a whole bunch of ideas for innovation She's here to speak to us today about reinventing the modern university and also what it's like to do that in a rural setting We're really grateful for her to be here. Welcome president Novak Thank you Brian very much. Glad to be here. Oh Delighted to see you listen before we dig into to detail questions about policy. Let me just ask you an introductory question What are you going to be spending most of your time on for the next year? What are the big topics ideas the situation is going to be occupying most of prison Novak? Well, certainly the question for us in rural America is a lot about the labor force and really equipping the labor force to meet Emerging needs and so we're in a number of partnership Conversations with business industry the nonprofit sector to really explore Innovative approaches to higher education and responsiveness to the needs of our region That's a really that sounds like an ongoing effort. You'll be continually continually monitoring the area having conversations with people absolutely Well good for you excellent Well friends, I have a couple of questions just to kick things off But you all will have your own questions and comments So, please use the buttons on the screen that I told you about to throw up your hand So that you can join this on stage or to send me a question to ask professor Novak doctor Novak So let me press on this a bit. What what are the emerging needs for the labor force in rural America? Well, I think this is Rather complex perhaps for one many of the regions across rural America are short a labor supply or short Educated labor supply and so this poses some unique challenges. Our demographics continue to decline Or we're in regions where we're so far spread out that accessing education becomes more challenging and We're thinking constantly about how do we leverage? Technology, how do we think differently and entrepreneurially about the delivery of education as well as ways in which we can better link our business and industry partners with the university to build programs that perhaps are Codeweloping and co-preparing students for the world of work. So that might be more boldly integrating apprenticeships and entrepreneurship Internships right alongside the educational experience and so we're exploring ways to do that with greater Intentionality finally, I would add one of the emerging trends in rural America is also the recognition that perhaps what used to be the key Industry sectors are rapidly being disrupted Agriculture for example is being disrupted by precision agriculture and technology Use of traditional manufacturing are clearly being disrupted by by again technology and automation and so what are we doing to equip even adult learners for a new and really a new world and a new workplace and so we're exploring how to best do that in ways that are Perhaps not in the traditional nine month calendar are not delivered in the traditional 50 or one hour and 20 minute class period but rather are integrating a sensitivity to the workplace a reality around these people's lives and Building structures that we think are much more agile and friendly to learners across the lifespan Well, that covers a lot of ground. Can I can I follow up on a couple of those points? Sure Well I'm fascinated by this idea of technology disrupting the rural world I mean it Precision precision agriculture is just really astonishing everything from you know GPS and tractors to using big data to more closely analyze the results of seeds and You know thinking about technology also disrupting manufacturing Is one of the curricular areas then for your campus to really push on New forms of technology robotics data analysis that kind of thing I would say we're really robustly exploring how to integrate what I'm going to call digital literacy as a core component of earning So for years, we've talked about reading proficiency and numeracy as core competencies But we're really at a point now where digital literacy is equally important how people Understand the use of technology and its application in the workplace now. I'm blessed to be a mom to eight children I always joke with I always remind them that I'm frequently working on the demographics of South Dakota here, but anyway The reality is many of our young people May be equipped with a device, but how they use that to actually effectively improve their workplace May not be they simply don't come with that skill set So as digitally literate as they are about their social media platforms when it comes to asking questions around data and Analytics and information management and what's reliable and what's valid and what's credible We have really not invested a whole lot in our general education in doing that And that's one of the areas where Dakota Wesleyan is really moving forward with equipping students across the industry spectrum So not just in agriculture, but it's changing healthcare. It's changing manufacturing and equipping students to understand What role digital literacy will play in their lives as they move forward in the workplace? Fantastic, that's a great use of digital literacy Let me ask a Actually a question in two parts. You mentioned one of the challenges of trying to reach out to people who are physically harder and harder to Access How are you gonna match that as a university and they are you know push more more online and if so How do you shape that for the unique contours of a rural environment? So I think one of the one of our realities and it's a benefit is that many of our students come to Dakota Wesleyan having been in a virtual high school experience and because of the shortage of teachers in our across our state and frankly because of the regional Distance that many schools are struggling to find an adequate workforce in their schools We have a virtual high school within the state of South Dakota That means that many of our students upwards of half of them come to us already having had an experience in an online environment and so we're just building off of that and We have adopted at Dakota Wesleyan an initiative we call digital DWU and the goal of that is again to Harness the power of technology to enable students across the lifespan the learning lifespan who really learn with Technology as an aid and assisting them and one of the observations I'm sure you're aware of is that we also realize Students aren't learning the same way that brain plasticity and cognitive learning science has all informed us that the way we Introduce pedagogy the way we introduce content is really changing and we need to adapt to new types of learning styles in new ways In which people expect to be able to reach and access content So in some of our adult programs, for example, we're having a course that's offered once a week Partially online and partially on ground students then get the remainder of the course work In an online format in another one of our adult programs we have Are doing it where they come to campus for for a weekend they get introduced to a cohort of students The rest is done in online format in which they're doing applied projects linked particularly to their workplace And each of them has been assigned a life coach Who's basically working virtually with them on a weekly basis to help? Build structures of support and accountability. We're seeing tremendous success people in Remote locations across our geography across the Great Plains are now for the first time being able to access education whether it's a pastor returning to school to get a certificate and in Non-profit leadership or whether it's a nurse who was an LPN who now has decided to See what other skills she can develop as the rural health care situation continues to become increasingly complex So we're trying to be responsive by leveraging technology And new models of supporting the adult learner with these strategies So shifting not so on the one hand you have traditionally undergraduates So, you know roughly 18 year olds who already have some virtual learning experience due to your virtual high school And then more adult learners as well. I mean sounds like if the stereotype is that rural America is less technologically Invested than urban America. It sounds like you're bucking in that trend We're really fortunate. I think to have some business leadership in the state that recognizes When you're in a part of the world that sometimes our politicians on the East Coast call flyover country You have to think about the world in a little bit different ways. So they're highly entrepreneurial that is an ethos of this region and They've said to be competitive. We must invest in technology And we really have to equip the next generation of leaders with the skills to understand how to use it So there's been a significant broadband investment in the state and across the region which I think has Created a competitive advantage for our students and then many respects. They're farther ahead than other students who might be in urban centers Well, I can see that that investment in broadband is terrific and that's all too rare This brings me to a couple of questions And friends I I can ask president of our questions for months to come But your questions are really would drive the form and speaking which hello to people who have just come in a load of Mo Petzl Hello Rita Hello to Carl. Good to see all of you here. Hello Emily and Jacob We had two questions from people who are actually teaching right this hour But they really want to get the questions in and what them has to do a technology Excellent George station who is a longtime friend of the program asks about your One-to-one laptop program and he says first what on campus and virtual support can students expect a Very strong on campus and virtual support But I would say that the key so the students are able to access both the help desk as well as Online support if they're calling in from a distance at any time. So that's one of the Opportunities they have through the program, but one of the things that we've learned that's been probably most pivotal in the adoption of our digital DW initiative and this is an initiative primarily for our traditional students on ground although we offer similar Technological resources to our adult and online students is that the most important investment was in our faculty That if we're talking about a one-to-one initiative, it's one thing to have a device It's another to have a faculty member who is equipped to think about how to teach differently How to leverage the technology to really enhance teaching and learning if all the device is doing is just presenting Content in a way that's static. We probably aren't going to achieve an increase in overall learning outcomes, right? On the other hand, we're using the technology to truly create more robust Interactions to recognize that students are learning across a spectrum of learning styles and we can now present content to those different Types of students will have achieved a much greater success So I've been concerned for some time that the data around student learning and retention has remained relatively flat Seen robust increases or new strategies that have really bolstered How well students learn and retain the content that is presented I think technology offers a new portal if you will for us to be Boulder about what those learning outcomes can be and much more intentional how each more learning styles and so We're in just year two of this, but we're already starting to see some Significant improvements based on faculty feedback from the types of interactions the level of student engagement and also the academic outcomes That's huge. That's huge. Have you have you published any of that? Not yet because I don't feel like we have enough of a data set to make you know This is just year two. So we aren't at a point where I think we're comfortable saying Making any significant conclusions, but our faculty I would say roughly 65 to 70 70% of them have Recognized that there have been notable improvements in how they've been able to create engagement When we invested in them and they saw the strategies and began to apply them. There's also a much more robust sharing going on among faculty and That's helping create a learning environment in and of itself. You know, what's working? What's not working? What was a dismal failure and and oh boy that app looks like it could do something that I'd like to try So I appreciate the learning environment that this particular program has also facilitated Well, that's First of all, it's delightfully here. That's a great success and thank you for that rich answer to George's question He did have a follow-up Which was do all or most students have sufficient home internet access? So we have some grants within the region that allow all students to access it now whether they have a device Sometimes is a challenge. However, the both the high schools in the state are one to one And so if they are attending a public institution status out the coda In almost all of the cases they do have access to a device And they're able to device home with them So our school district in the Mitchell area actually has a one-to-one initiative from kindergarten to grade 12 Well, thank you for that great answer and George. Thank you so much for those questions Friends if you would like to ask questions along these lines wondering How does a virtual high school prepare you for for virtual classes and post-secondary if you have questions about the Technology to questions about the policy of this just go to the bottom of the screen and either click the raised hand If you want to join us up here on stage or clip a question mark if you want to type in a question You might want to think about if you're in a rural area Can these lessons apply to you? Can your campus figure out how to best meet or changing labor needs of the area or if you're not in a rural area? What does this tell you about this important sector of American higher education and not just American but worldwide? We have another question that came in from Professor Ed Webb at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania He's also teaching right now, but his question Let me read the one in the fold. It's a little long, but I see where he's going Does rural location push institutions to consider novel kinds of organizations or entities as potential partners in research teaching or co-curricular activities He goes on to say Conventionally academic institutions see partnerships with large businesses city governments, etc What does that look like if your neighbors are mostly farms and small-time businesses? It's a great question one of the things that I think we benefit from is When your demographics are challenging when your location is fairly rural You're forced to be a little bit more creative And it it generates probably a lot more ideation and innovation We just opened a new school of business or we celebrated the grand oak up the ground breaking of a new school of business Our primary target is equipping people for work in small and medium enterprise There is a really critical role for higher ed in in recognizing where they're at in embracing place-based education and Which does look different and creates a sense of civic responsibility around your place So our students for example do a lot of interaction guided by a very strong faculty in nonprofits in our region in responding to rural mental health challenges in partnering with The juvenile justice system as well as the Criminal justice and to look at the opioid epidemic. So we're trying to take place-based problems and creatively partner with nonprofits with small and medium enterprise with Government entities to think differently about how can we collectively come together to solve problems and The university provides an important role as a thought leader as well as providing An experiential labor force to begin to address these types of problems. So I'm not sure that we Seek I mean we just don't have Fortune 100 companies around here But if we can host forums if we can host events if we can do small intimate trainings Then I think we begin to see collectives of groups come together To share ideas to collaborate in ways that are probably a little bit different than what you might find in a more urban environment That's a fantastic answer. Wow. What a great vision Thank you Ed for that awesome awesome question On building on that we have a question from Robert McGuire. He flashes on the screen Robert asks is your location ever a selling point for perspective urban students and their families EG from Minneapolis Denver, Chicago so we have about 40% of our students that come from outside the state many from urban areas and for many of them we focus on the safety of our region as well as really the opportunities to connect directly with Experiences and learning that really gives them a hands-on exposure to whether it be healthcare or agriculture or small business development very intimately and right away And so we find many of our students who get here don't leave so we consider ourselves a labor force and order and part of that is creating a vision of what it is to be excited about rural America and not one not a vision that is about the doldrums of rural America and so One of the concerns for me in particular in the last Three to four years has been the really negative rhetoric that we've often aligned with The sense that it's well there are absolutely problem And I'm not going to deny the existence of those problems I think there's a lot to celebrate about small that small can be significant and we we use that to really create Customized and personalized opportunities for students and that's been compelling for many of the students that we recruit from outside of the region Small can be beautiful We have more questions that are piling in now, which is great And we've got one from Jacob Goel or gavel. It's always good to see you Jacob And his question has to do with distance learning. He asks how does the effectiveness of distance learning? Competition for enrollment with online degree programs based elsewhere based elsewhere How does it impact on the ground and hybrid programs based in rural communities? Let me flash on the screen again because that was a good one Thank you for doing that. That's a great question Jacob. I appreciate that So we've kind of done Targeting and so when we created the online and adult based learning programs We've really targeted niches in the marketplace that need a response and so we've partnered with the hospital system or we've partnered with a We have a Certificate in trust management, South Dakota holds the The most trust assets in the country second to Delaware because of some favorable tax laws We've partnered for example with the trust industry our adult programs and online programs are really designed to meet a particular market niche That is different to some degree than the more General student offerings that are preparing students for the traditional environment now We also partnered with some of our technical institutes in the state so students can take Two years there or our students can go take 36 credit hours in a very specialized area like precision agriculture or wind energy Or construction and then complete other credit our credits with us What we have tried to do is rather than look at the lens and say How do we not compete against ourselves? We've just said how can we create a slate of offerings where people can enter where it's most appropriate and We've seen the whole if we if you we've seen the whole ocean rise using To the idea that we are creating things that are competing with ourselves. I had a conversation a few years ago with a Head of an online university and they said that their biggest challenge was timing that when they started off they began by starting all classes that began in September and began in January and they really Just found that most of the students didn't find that interesting that in fact that the two days during the year where students were most Interested in starting class for the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas So they had to just turn around and reconfigure their entire academic calendar But they also had to make available on-demand learning which is which is hard. I have to ask how have you done this? How have you taken Dakota? You know Wesleyan and then made this so that people can just start taking classes whenever they're interested How'd you do that? Well, I want to be clear. We don't offer on-demand learning as you just described it So students do happen to be right in a general cycle. It might be a good idea What I would say is as we've built programs We have sensitized ourselves to the nature of the program for example We have a nonprofit church leadership program. This is designed for pastors, frankly working in rural parts of American and asking themselves, how do I understand the business fundamentals of my church? How do I understand the economic development of these and partnerships that my church might be able to provide as a Non-profit intersecting with needs within a community. How do I think about philanthropy differently? So that program is designed around the church liturgical year when the churches do budgeting That's when we do applied budget project when it's the general time of year that churches are Inquiring about stewardship. We do our units on stewardship and the applied projects correspond with that So we have tried to develop these sort of niche programs in response to what the needs are of those industry sectors The LPN to BS and nursing program that I talked about a little bit earlier It meets one day a week and that day that it meets was a We we achieved a general understanding of the the major Healthcare partners in the region to say we're going to give you Thursday to have students there and then on the weekends they're going to have these clinical opportunities so that students can continue to work and As we've listened we've tried to develop a responsive curriculum So what I think is particularly unique about Dakota Westland has been our ability to invite The sectors that are in need of labor force and really say how do we co-create this And really after credit our faculty who have an openness to doing this because this is a different This is not your traditional model. So if business and industry says we are seeing deficiencies in professional communication What can we do differently in the classroom to deliver that those kinds of collaborations are really yielding some pretty compelling Work I would add one other thing when we recognize that students in the adult learning space for example We're saying to us. Well, we're struggling a little bit or we don't know that we have the support That was the you know incentive to really think through how do we add coaches to this mix? And so these life coaches and project-based coaches are really an interesting addition that have For the most part we've seen very strong outcomes because the coaches are really they're offering that ongoing support in a way That looks a lot different than just an online or a MOOC Environment where students are doing it at their own pace this is holding people accountable in a little bit different way and we seem to be seeing much higher retention and Impacts from those you know long-term impact from the kind of work they're doing That's terrific. That's that's a great great picture I have to say I Have so many other questions asked Based on what you're describing I want to follow up with a couple, but let me just ask everybody You can see how easy it is to ask questions and you can see how President Novak is so happy to answer them So please think about other questions or comments you have for example if you want to follow up more on the One-to-one laptop question or broadband questions, or if you'd like to ask about faculty development How do faculty become so open to experimenting this way and working online? If you have any rural specific questions, I mean, I'm thinking for example about the alternative energy as a business opportunity But also thinking about how does the how does Wesleyan you know respond to non? Economic needs as a handle students who want to express themselves who want to become something else to explore Let's have tons of questions and we're we're eager as they say in radio the lines are open So one question I'd like to ask You mentioned the medical sector a few times and then I assume this is the full medical sector I mean, this is you know hospitals clinics mental health radiology devices and everything else Now in the rural sector, it's a it's a tricky problem because as the population Plateaus or declines it gets harder and harder to get medical services out to people in the same time as the rural population Ages statistically they're more likely to require more and more services. So I'm curious how How are you seeing that play out in North Dakota outside of your university? But then what role can your university play in trying to trying to help that? So two great questions We're actually located in South Dakota. So I just got to make sure you're going just a little bit south of that border Just no worries So one of the challenges obviously that you've just identified is how do you reach people in isolated places? and We're fortunate to again. I think being a place where people have to creatively solve problems. So one of the very robust aspects of our Medical community is the advent of telehealth We recently partnered with the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation to do some work around equipping nurses in particular For rural America and that's a little bit of a different experience for a couple of reasons many times nurses in a clinic setting in a long-term care facility in a senior living environment are The key point of contact and they serve as a significant generalist someone might come into a small rural hospital with a Combine accident a hunting accident a Birth and they weren't able to get to a larger facility where that Could happen. So we have actually created clinical opportunities for students to learn how to really Understand the the work that gets done in telehealth how we communicate using Visual cues we work with doctors who are at a distance. What are the devices that need to be used so that doctors can Can understand what are the questions? How do we translate for the patient? so there's a vast amount of learning happening right now in Telehealth and creative ways to reach people. We're also seeing a significant increase in the discussion around population health management and What I call the biology of wellness So how do we take a more proactive approach in rural America to looking at health and wellness? even among older populations and what strategies in terms of putting nursing teams or Holistic health teams we're seeing places where a Chaplain and a nurse and a social worker make make be going out on rotation to check on people As a strategy around that population health management. We're also seeing more robust prevention strategies So seminars on mindfulness going out into communities or offering online forums where people can be learning about mindfulness and diet and general health Prevention now that's not to say that we've become a master of this because we haven't but we're learning and I think there's some creative approaches when we look at these integrated health teams that are being developed through our major medical systems here To creatively respond to this and we're seeing options around clinics that are not They don't look traditional People are going in seeing a telehealth advisor with a nurse there Getting feedback from Mayo Clinic or Sioux Falls or some of our more urban areas as a way to be able to Measure what's happening with that particular patient? Oh That's fantastic. It's a real it's a kind of classic vision of 21st century, you know life But you're realizing it in not the area that most people think of as being 21st century. I Like to think there's a lot of good things happening in rural America and these are some of them That's not that I think one of the real challenges we're trying to come to grips with is rural mental health and I'm not sure we we fully figured out how to address that yet at all There's a significant shortage of both practitioners And it's a much harder conversation to have mental health over a screen and so We are fortunate to have one of our psychology professors doing some very good work in exploring alternatives to providing Alternative strategies for rural mental health nice, I wonder if um if bandwidth permits, I mean I wonder about Virtual reality for that the there's already been some fantastic work in VR for PTSD And there's this argument. It's controversial that people have argued that VR is very good at Eliciting empathy from people that it makes people more present. So it may be that that's something That people are willing to really want to respond to No, this is terrific to hear Friends again, this is a the space where you can ask these questions And above all you don't want me running the entire show because then it'll it'll just be you know too much beard hair It'll just be impossible So while you're thinking of questions One thing I would like to ask is how how are you handling the demographic transition? That is the the population of your state is aging So the population that is traditionally gender-graduate is shrinking and the whole population isn't growing So you do you depend to a healthy extent on tuition revenue To keep the books balanced and the doors open the lights on Are you looking to for example? More aggressively move into adult education. Are you looking to recruit students online from beyond your state's borders? Or how are you handling this transition? That's a great question South Dakota has about just under 8,000 High school graduates a year and we have 16 Institutions of higher learning so you can do the math quickly With 2d1 institutions in the state. This is highly competitive and the decline is noteworthy I mean as you mentioned We're anticipating, you know between a 7 and 12 percent decline in the next decade Or higher depending on on that so that data however That's been presented. I think Nathan Grah's book is probably most noteworthy on this but That data assumes several things it assumes current state Which means it doesn't assume That we aren't figuring out ways to serve new populations. So one of the Growth sectors if you will for south dakota is the Influence of new immigrant populations That are supporting the egg technology and egg processing industries They traditionally have not gone on to college so What ways my universities like dakota westland create innovative solutions to that We've got a couple of programs that I we haven't started yet, but we're working on developing partners to create very meaningful Internships right alongside their class experiences In a very affordable way not on our campus, but in a different environment So I think that's a popular needs to be explored. I also think that We're recognizing Students and the industry Is demanding learning across the life cycle and so we're definitely exploring more robust offerings in our adult An online space our university is home to the late senator george mcgovern and That was his we are his alma mater and so Some of the programming for example out of our mcgovern center might in fact serve a larger niche population When we talk about issues of nonprofits and food security So we're exploring ways that we can leverage some expertise that we have among our faculty with Niche opportunities for adult populations that might serve not just south dakota But the larger region and perhaps a national audience for example this trust management certificate It's one of two nationally that is actually Approved by the american banking association to prepare students for to become Professionals certified trust professionals and so that has capacity to have a very national audience So I think it's thinking about what are the ways that small universities might develop niche programs That can have national space or alternatively. How do we keep equipping? Um with ongoing certificates and letting people ladder their certificates to degrees In the adult learning space that create opportunities for them to continue to To transition out of what might have been traditional spaces where manufacturing And now has been replaced by automation to new opportunities in those sectors. So Wow, that's a that's a terrific answer with a lot of optimism, which I really really appreciate Optimistic up here out here. It's snow today and I'm just saying that can't be Oh, sure. Sure. Sure. I just uh, we just moved from from vermont when we're used to first snow in september and the I love the way this is This positions universities a change agent for the community In a very visionary way We've another question from Robert McGuire. Let me put this up on screen Which is how do you feel? What do you feel is the role of faculty in the enrollment or recruiting challenges? um pivotal They just um, we just did a I think a fairly compelling faculty workshop at the beginning of this year with our with our faculty and one of the analogies we used was um baseball and we talked about coaches or admissions counselors sort of You know getting up to bat and setting the plate, but um, the faculty are the closers and so They really offer kind of the compelling case For why dakota westland? And so to that end the obligation we have as leaders within our universities is to make sure our faculty are equipped with those talking points And that those talking points and that branding and that visibility um are our Congruent across the university So one of the things we talk about here at dakota westland is our ability to be both entrepreneurial and innovative And our faculty then can share specifically how in biology that manifests itself or in biochemistry or in business or in education And and then we talk about what it means to be a university not just in the community But for and with the community and they give examples of how the experience of learning occurring within their content areas Actually strengthens our place Actually strengthens our sense of community So we talk about you know, what's our dna? I think we're innovative. We are entrepreneurial We are focused on our place and our sense of community We help students understand what it means to be part of a family if even if it's not our sense of biological one But what it means to be living in community? What does that obligate us to and then finally? We serve a significant portion who are first in their family to attend college who come from low-income backgrounds So we are a place of opportunity and we're going to take a second and third risk on you We're going to personalize the education That I think offers them a pretty compelling case. So when our faculty start telling that story Using their subject matter discipline in context. It's very powerful So we rely extensively. I mean i'm very transparent with our community We all collectively own our future. I don't own the future our students future collectively We create our future and we have to co-create and co-develop and when we do that with that kind of transparency I think we start to see really positive outcomes and we incentivize their entrepreneurial and innovative thinking so People who are doing that work, you know, they're being recognized. They're They're getting resources To be able to support those types of initiatives I really love that phrase that we collectively own our future We we had a quick question that came in via twitter From venessa veil who is an awesome person and a longtime friend of the program And she wants to know who this is a question back to an earlier point about the broadband access And she said She was wondering about people who don't have good broadband at home and who can't access local high school very well Do those people have more access through public libraries or through cell phones Uh in the rural areas, there are fewer public libraries, right? They're just aren't I mean we're talking about many of our students come from high schools in which their class had fewer than 15 students So the likelihood that their community has a library may not be high Many of those students bus in an hour an hour and a half to get to some of their rural schools So those the cell phone has become pretty pivotal We have continued to work as a state and we've been beneficiaries of some national programs as well To be able to strengthen broadband access She's venesis correct though. There are absolutely students who can't afford the device Which is why In many of our school districts, we've adopted the One-to-one initiative so students have that device to take home with them as a strategy I would say though on the whole The bulk of the state Is accessible and does and can access through their cell phone or other tools Their classes or their content or libraries libraries are also available in some of our our larger communities that might have 8 10 12,000 people in them. So But I want to be clear When I talk about the virtual high school, what happens is that sometimes students will come to a school that let's say the total population K through 12 is 120 students They may not be able to afford a teacher to teach calculus or physics Or someone who's going to just work in that small community So the virtual high school really fills the role of that class Or of offering that foreign language I mean those the upper level math and science and the languages is where we see the most struggle in our smaller schools Whether that education matches the experience someone has in the classroom, you know, it continues to be debated But on the whole it's better than not having it, right? So It's it's an experiment in progress But I as a whole the state has really made a pretty robust effort And we've been fortunate again because of some access to both federal grants and state resources that have invested in that Well, that makes a big difference. I really appreciate the nuanced question Are the nuanced answer to a really really good question And let me see if we can get venice on stage. Let's see if speaking of rural broadband Let's see if her for video will allow it venice I'm up Yes, and I appreciate your your last answer um, I'm I'm not an active educator anymore. I accept that I'm I'm still dabbling and ankle biting and sharing information Trying to figure out something appropriate to call myself um But I I sometimes go with guerrilla educationist But also rural I live in and you will be familiar with the part of the with the with just this part of colorado northeast colorado Yes, you know, that's next door practically Sterling that are you in the sterling area? Yuma Yuma. Okay. Okay. So the even smaller right got it. It's got a high school graduating classes. I think run around 50 um and um They've got um They're expanding they've been doing dual credit and uh, they're still sort of the access prom But it's probably better than some of the small communities around um, although I'm sure that they're probably this, you know It's probably a lot of people can't afford the access because there's not colorado doesn't have as good a sort of rural rural broadband access program as Your place does But I think they're supposed to be working on it, but I keep hearing we're working on it We're working on it. I since I moved here three years ago And I'm not seeing a whole lot of progress. Um Yuma may be get is supposed to be is in the process of getting fiber optic cable in a limited area But I suspect it's going to be very expensive and really oriented to businesses There is a lot of big ag up here as well as small still small farmers Uh, and so I'm I'm totally familiar with the like all the stuff the stuff with the crop stuff and the Yeah, the precision actually precision tools. I think has a big location near here too Or you know an office and outlet they're they're they're active here with with the large farms And um And yuma has just opened up they're getting oh getting a branch of the sterling uh northeastern Junior college here in yuma just open opening up this hopefully opening up this spring And but they've been working with them for dual credit classes um in the high schools um And uh, I was and particularly and and I'm I'm I'm the grandparent of two middle schoolers One of whom is adapts very well of the local school system and the other one is He doesn't he's He makes videos and he If they ask him to write something creative in class. He doesn't it's not really what they want And he's he he goes to the office a lot and his brother doesn't So they're thinking about online middle school So I was wondering what you would at the same time for self-interest I'm interested in all the things you're talking about but at this particular moment I'm particularly interested in in your experience with working You know with working with the online school with the online schools Does connect I think connect academy is is in colorado has colorado has a connect academy um And I'm wondering how how those work not just in high school, but maybe even middle school Right, I'm not sure that I have a lot of experience that I can respond to in that In that regard and I apologize about that. I'm really just familiar with what we have in the state of south dakota Um, I have heard people who have tried to access that but I think you're pointing to actually a bigger question And that is um, uh an ongoing question of how we're engaging young men in middle school Quite honestly, I think it's a it's a it's an opportunity ripe for some innovation and creativity And um, maybe a new framework. Um, I you know, I mentioned early on I had eight children six of whom are boys and So I'm particularly Sensitive to exactly the situation you're describing. I'm not me at home. Yeah, I'm not sure that all of us have figured out um Or at least we need to acknowledge that there may be new ways that we need to begin to Look at our education across the spectrum and in particular in that middle school and high school And even at the college level because the decline in the number of male graduates Is pretty staggering and we're going to have to get Um much more creative about how we engage them in learning and so I empathize with you and I Don't know that I have a lot to offer in terms of online middle school Well, I'm I'm I'm sending out Messages to people I know who might have a sort of peripheral involvement or could at least well It's sort of like any kind of search you start off with finding somebody who can point you to the next place Sure, absolutely I am familiar with that connect um the connect ed platform I don't know of people who've gone through it. So I don't know if I can comment on It's efficacy or how well it's worked for them. So Well, I know that there's pop this or or how does the the public online high schools compare public public online k12 Although it's hard to imagine public kindergarten until the I mean online kindergarten So but that's just an aside But the the public versus the private how do you have any idea how those compare? I don't I apologize. I just don't have a lot of uh background in that sector Well, it's a good question. Um, and venessa, thank you. It's so good to see you Yes, I'm glad you know, it's a well, I probably I probably was one of the I I didn't I meant to get word out on this sort of locally and I yesterday uh, but uh didn't get to it and I said I wanted the beginning and tagged I tagged uh to school board members nice and the local chamber of commerce and the uh, the northeastern junior college uh And um, say piece basically who are who all involved with the uh with the junior college here And interested in you know that I thought a lot of this and I've bookmarked a bunch of so I've got a bundle of links for for the your your your dw you you uh digital which is fast that page the page for the dw digital Yeah, they all the facts and all the sort of question things. That's a great resource That I'm going to be sharing with the we you got to figure that there's a problem with the system somehow when um When when you've got What and the thing is is you know, there's like like yeah the teenage boys, you know It's or preteen boys particularly when they're just sort of testing Um, I don't know. How did a wane do in up in vermont at that stage? Well, I can tell you later. Um, that's that's my son. Um, who is uh, who is awesome The reason I can tell you later is because we're out of time. Oh, I'm sorry. Well, I'm glad I got up. I'm old. I'm really glad you got I'm really glad to see you and we'll share the recording um Take care venessa Thank you Let me just say first of all President Novak, thank you so much for taking the time with us. Um, I I'm I'm so exhilarated by your vision And I'm also so thankful for how thoroughly and with what nuance you answered all of our questions. Thank you very much Um, the opportunity. Oh my pleasure. Um, one question is what's the best way to keep up with you and your campus's Brilliant activity Well, I'm on twitter. So it's at president Novak So certainly you can check that out. Um, you also can be directed to our website. Um, w w w dot d w u dot edu And our facebook page Is also connected through dakota wesley and university. So very good to check those things out All those will work. Thank you so much. Um, and uh Well, we have more questions, but what we'll have to do is we'll have to follow up with you. Um, That sounds great. When you uh, when you finally decide to publish some of that data, uh, we'd love to be able to share it around And um in the meantime, um, thank you all so much But um, don't everybody go, uh, we have to tell you what's happening over the next week. Um, so, um, let me say, uh First of all next week, uh, we have an experimental session. We're gonna have maria anderson One of my favorite people she's the founder of course tune a math prof a futurist And she and i are going to bounce off of the current events in higher education technology. This is a experimental panel We're gonna look forward these current device current inventions and current news to see what they tell us about the future So that's going to be next week. So please join us for that Now, uh, we have um our video archive people have been asking about this Our video archive is available at tinyurl.com slash fdf archive So if you'd like to dive in there and see uh, we'll get previous guests We'd be glad for you to do that And if you want to keep this conversation going, there are all kinds of ways Or just use the hashtag ft te You can follow us on twitter. You're gonna follow us on facebook You can have join us on groups and facebook or linkedin or a slack group and we'll be glad to hear from you In the meantime, thank you so much for coming. Thank you for your questions and thoughts. We'll see you next time Take care. Bye. Bye