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The future of education
Tim Cook on affordable housing, on-demand learning and more for CCC
STORY BY ETHAN M. ROGERS
NEWS EDITOR
Declining birth rates, an aging and
diversifying student population and
changing needs of employers are just a
few of the challenges' facing Clackamas
Community College.
That’s according to College President
Tim Cook, who spoke at the Oregon City
Business Alliance’s monthly forum in
September.
The
COVID
pandemic
gave
administrators at the college time to think
about where CCC is headed for the next 10
years and beyond.
Cook arranged his talk into three
“buckets” -- a changing student
population, a changing workforce and
workplace needs, and how the coHege is
adapting to meet those changes.
“Birth rates have been declining
sipce the ‘80’s,” Cook s a id / ^ o this was
happening pre-pandemic, w hat we’re
seeing now, if you talk to anybody at the
public universities or the community
colleges, there are just fewer and fewer
students that are that traditional age
coming through.”
Adults over 30U That’s the population
that’s increasing and expected to
increase over the next 15 to 20 years.
That also happens to be the age of CCC’s
primary student population, which
means opportunity for CCC and other
community colleges with similar student
profiles.
.
Unfortunately, according to Cook,
“Oregon really does not have what we call
a college-going culture.
“That’s something that w e don’t
necessarily emphasize in this state,” he
said, “to the extent that w e set up systems
or we set up funding mechanisms or w e
find other ways for students to be able to
easily go.”
Some of those roadblocks to education
include educational programs that don’t
meet the needs of students or employers,
a lack of tim e or money, or insecurity
in housing, food access or access to
childcare.
“I see this as another opportunity for
us to really think about how we can work
together as businesses, as legislators, as
educators, to really increase that college-
going culture that w e need,” Cook said.
The Clackamas Print
File p h oto o f CCC P resident Tim Cook
Clackamas Community College is also
experiencing an increase i n the diversity
of its student make-up/
“At Clackamas, about 330 of our
students are BIPOC,” Cook said. “We’re
seeing the biggest growth by far in our
Latinx community, then people that
identify as having more than one race.”
Whether that means offering more
programs in Spanish, as was recently
done with one program by CCC’s Small
Business
Development
Center,
or
recognizing Juneteenth as a campus
holiday as was done this year, the college
is making efforts to include everyone.
“The college is growing at a faster
rate with diversity,” Cook said, “so that’s
something that w e’re attending to and
really trying to figure out how w e can
adapt and make sure that w e’re serving a
more and more diverse population here
at the college and in the county.”
The x pandemic took students out of
classrooms and into Zoom meetings and
the world of online learning. Many don’t
want to go back.
“We built our schedules about six
months ahead of time,” Cook said. “Last
May, w e put out our fall schedule, which
w e started yesterday. Students... by a two-
to-one ratio, they wanted online classes.
So all of these face-to-face classes w e’ve
been putting together and trying to fun
have no students, or have a handful of
students. We can’t afford that.”
What does a college do with buildings
they no longer need for classes? They
rethink the whole idea of education.
Cook’s vision for the future scraps the
old students-in-desks model and looks
for new ways to provide students the
tools and support they need to grow as
ihdividuals.
“Pre-pandemic w e had this pretty
traditional one-year credential / two-year
degree that you would see in most places,”
Cook said, “and w e’re hearing over and
over again, a year’s too long, w e can’t wait,
w e need CNC operators, we need people
now, w e need them yesterday.”
Employers across all sectors are
hurting for employees, and employers
can’t wait/
“We hear this all the timeU’Can you
help us find people now, and can we do
some training that gets people ready to go;
much quicker?’ ” Cook said. -
On-Demand
learning,
micro
credentials, on-site training, flex and
hybrid classrooms and re-thinking the
purpose of a college campus. These are
some of the ways the college is trying to
adapt to the current and future needs of
students and the community.
“We’re much more prepared now,”
Cook said, “where w e’re actually doing
a better job of getting ready for what’s
coming. We’re almost half-and-half credit
and non-credit options that w e offer at the
college.”
Non-credit courses might look like a
local business that needs to offer training
at night or on the weekends and wants
to use campus facilities, or wants CCC
instructors to train their employees on
site for a number of Weeks. It could be
someone looking to add a skill to their
resume or a retiree who wants to learn
about organic farming.
On-Demand learning would allow
students or interested community
members to engage in learning on
their own schedule, much like many
commercially available options such as
Domestika, Udemy or Masterclass.
Any o f the class formats could be used
to provide students a micro-credential or
a certification on a single type o f machine
or in a particular procedure, which would
allow them to get a job or move up in their
current position.
theclackam asprint.com
“I would predict as w e move forward
that we may get to a point in the not-so-
distant future where w e’re offering more
non-credit than we are credit classes,”
Cook said.
Beyond non-credit options for students,
classroom options are changing as well.
Class used to mean students sitting
in a room together in that old European
model that Cook mentioned.
Todaywe use words like online learning,
hybrid
classroom, flex classroom,
synchronous and asynchronous learning,
virtual reality and simulation.
Hybrid instruction is perhaps closest
to that old model; part-time in class, part-
time online.
’ Online learning can be either
synchronous, with all students meeting
at the same time for the same class, or
asynchronous, with students accessing
course materials on their own schedule.
H ex learning is perhaps the most
interesting concept. Classes run on a
schedule. Students can attend class in
person or online, and they can watch the
class later at their leisure.
Flex classrooms offer greater student
control over their learning process.
Virtual reality and simulation programs
are in the pipeline for the future, with
some programs already being rolled out
in other locations.
Cook was near gushing over the
college’s new Maker’s Space.
“Our programs use those spaces all the
time for training and for* work, but then
on the weekends w e’re turning those into
a community space,” Cook said. “Whether
you’re a hobbyist and you want to make
something, or you’ve got an idea for a
small business and you want to prototype
a product, this space is available. It’s a
great w ay for people to get up-skilled to
use new technology where maybe they
didn’t have that opportunity before.”
Beyond the students, beyond the class
offerings, there is the campus.
“We spent the last six months working
on a campus mass concept master plan,
with the goal of really examining all of our
facilities, all of our instruction, looking at
the next 10 years,” Cook said.
Online courses are fundamentally
lonely, he said.
see COOK, page 5
October 2022