IT'S TIME TO REIMAGINE
LIFETIME LEARNING
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
HIGHER EDUCATION
A Critical Challenge for Higher ed
The status quo of how we serve learners simply won’t cut it anymore.
We need a framework for innovation that creates buy-in and alignment at all levels.
How We Accelerate Innovation
We believe technology-enabled collaboration creates radical alignment.
Education & Workforce Development are Facing a Critical Challenge
In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that the status quo of how we serve learners after high school just isn’t going to cut it for much longer. Public opinion is declining and many feel that the traditional model of higher education is becoming obsolete.
- Mounting student loan debt & low enrollments are exacerbated by the global pandemic
- State support for public higher education is declining while net tuition growth is questionable
- 66% of college students say higher education is not worth the cost
- Only 38% of survey respondants feel the value of higher education is increasing
Who We Are
We are a 501 (c)3 nonprofit solution shop comprised of like-minded people who believe that the state of higher education impacts every facet of society, and is one of the most important indicators of our success as a nation. More >
What We Do
We facilitate technology-enabled collaboration to empower diverse stakeholders to innovate solitions to the biggest problems facing higher ed and workforce development today. More >
Today’s learners shy away from the rigid timelines and traditional career paths of yesterday – and with good reason. After all, a typical semester or quarter schedule no longer works for most adult learners who have fully embraced learning and working environments that are no longer place-bound.
Taking on crippling debt has ceased to be seen as a fair trade-off for a degree that may not adequately prepare them for their chosen careers.
That is especially true of emerging careers like those in tech, which demand a culture of lifelong learning and upskilling, and often don’t require formal degree-based education.
It is overwhelmingly clear is that a sea-change level innovation is needed now in order to ensure that we are positioning future learners, workers, and the country as a whole for success.
What Needs to Change?
Well, we don’t know, exactly. And that’s okay!
You see, WebStudy Foundation does not exist to dictate the answers to the challenges facing learners and higher education institutions.
Instead, our intention is to empower stakeholders to ask the hard questions about how our systems, processes, and assumptions must change to ensure future success, and to give them a framework to innovate decisions to make lasting change that all parties are in alignment on executing.
We don’t presume to strut into the offices of institutional leadership with a list in hand of changes that need to be made. That kind of approach rarely leads to meaningful change anyway.
Besides, this country is incredibly, beautifully diverse. What works for one institution and community may not work for another. Similarly, what one struggles with, another may excel at.
Lasting change requires solutions that span departments, silos, and rank, and that is our goal – to facilitate innovation, not to dictate what the right innovation might be.
You might go so far as to say we are solution agnostic.
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THE METHODOLOGY
Facilitation, Collaboration & Technology
Accelerate Innovation
While we are solution agnostic, with three decades transitioning from serving corporate training to formal education, we have plenty of ideas of what the future of lifetime learning could look like. Still, we believe that the most sustainable solutions are the ones everyone can get behind.
Naturally, the solutions everyone can get behind are the ones all stakeholders helped to create.
So instead of spending our time trying to push our ideas of what lifelong learning should look like, we sought out the methods and technology that have been most successful in bringing all minds on deck to answer big questions and solve wicked problems worldwide.
Using that methodology that we now call Facilitated Collaborative Convenings, we apply technology-enabled facilitation virtually or in-person to empower diverse stakeholders to innovate solutions to the biggest problems facing higher ed and workforce development today.
We Empower
stakeholders to source solutions organically, in a way that ensures buy-in and alignment at all levels through technology-enabled collaborative convenings.
We Facilitate
diverse groups, leveraging our unique methodology to help them come together vritually or in person to reimagine the way their institutions and communities serve tomorrow’s learners.
We Accelerate
innovation by helping organizations leave behind the semesters-long decision-making cycles of old so they can respond quickly to the industry’s most pressing callenges.
A Proven Process to Create Radical Alignment
The methodology we use and the technology that supports it have been used to create alignment and source solutions around some of the biggest challenges of the past twenty years.
Whether its bringing thousands of displaced residents together with city officials to formulate a holistic recovery plan for New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, or distilling 30 hours of think tanks into five concrete proposals to be presented two world leaders at two G20 summits, we know technology-empowered collaboration works.
And yet, to date, it has not been fully harnessed to solve the fundamental issues facing learning and working in the United States. Issues that impact every citizen and resident including:
- Reducing equity barriers
- Revamping programs and curriculums to meet future learner needs
- Addressing alarming state and regional trends on job openings, labor force participation, and quit rates
- Creating cooperative agreements for upskilling and reskilling to reduce the labor shortage
Meet the Team
The WebStudy Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization focused on creating a positive social impact as education and workforce development proactively journeys through an innovated future. Our vision is for higher education institutions to be sustainable and thrive in this century.
In 1997, Gisele and Curt partnered with Professor Doug McConatha and his then graduate student, Daniel Franc to commercialize, market, and support a LMS (Learning Management System) holding the name, WebStudy. In conjunction with a consortium of colleges and universities, they partnered with WHYY to downsize telecourse delivery of distance education and ramp up online learning. After conceding to the LMS market leaders, operations ceased in 2019.
We learned valuable insights about how institutions strategize and plan for the future – or not. As a team they worked with faculty, staff, administrators, and students.
Kevin Kelly, author, instructor, seasoned higher education consultant and thought leader was consulted by the WebStudy Foundation to guide an inquiry to answer this question:
“What does higher education want and need that would make a difference as our industry innovates its future?”
The WebStudy Foundation packaged a combination of consulting, system integration of collaborative tools and design process to offer Virtual Facilitated Collaborative Convenings as an alternative methodology to participatory governance.
- Facilitated Collaborative Convenings are more effective than DIY in-person committee meetings with white flip charts
- Facilitated Collaborative Convenings are more cost effective than name-brand firm consulting engagements.
It became our mission to help colleges and universities adapt to BIG change expeditiously by collaborating with organizations effectively delivering workforce programs and lifetime learning opportunities.
In our quest, WebStudy Foundation researched the organizational development industry and consulted with key influencers in the realm of facilitation and large group meeting strategic services. Lenny Lind, founder of Covision; Todd Erickson, Associate of CoCreating Consulting; Christian Saucedo, Covision Partner; and Leland Russell, founder of GEO Group Strategic Services have all contributed to WebStudy Foundation to formulate an offer that would allow higher education to benefit from the fruits of their labor over the last 30 years in other sectors.
Gisele Larose
Executive Director
Curt Corbi
CIO
Kevin Kelly, EdD
Advisor
Lexi Hartmann
Marketing Advisor
Contact us
Office Address
213 Lake Vista Dr
Mandeville, LA 70471
Phone Number
(888) 326-4058
Email Address
engage@webstudyfoundation.org
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