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Taking AJU...ANYWHERE
It’s not just our motto, it’s our mantra...We do Take Education Anywhere.
Last week, Tammy and I went to Bon Secour Bay (on Alabama's Gulf of Mexico coast) for a long-planned vacation.
We had rented a condo for the week and were really looking forward to the time away. However, with the popularity of the just-hatched Sponsored Tuition program, taking a week off from work turned out to be “not in the cards."
Our son Mike turned 12 last week; he's about to start middle school and had been looking forward to his birthday trip for most of the summer. So instead of canceling our vacation, we did what AJU students do: we took our education with us.
Armed with two laptops, two air cards and a briefcase full of paperwork, Tammy and I set up at a kitchen table overlooking a beautiful inlet. As dolphins frolicked beneath us - and while our son slept in - we would jump on the internet about 7:30am, upload our email and “crank away.”
We'd knock off about noon for lunch, then go to to the movies or enjoy some shopping. Mike and I played in the pool - I felt like 42-going-on-12, dunking my preteen son. Late in the afternoon, back to the laptops to check out messages and process enrollments. Evenings, we'd take another swim before enjoying dinner and a nice bottle of wine, sitting on the deck watching the incredible sunset over the bay.
By the end of the week, we began to think that maybe we should just buy the condo and establish an AJU extension campus. Next time, I'm thinking of renting a boat to see if we can work while actually on the bay!
Happy studying,
Don Kassner
Last week, Tammy and I went to Bon Secour Bay (on Alabama's Gulf of Mexico coast) for a long-planned vacation.
We had rented a condo for the week and were really looking forward to the time away. However, with the popularity of the just-hatched Sponsored Tuition program, taking a week off from work turned out to be “not in the cards."
Our son Mike turned 12 last week; he's about to start middle school and had been looking forward to his birthday trip for most of the summer. So instead of canceling our vacation, we did what AJU students do: we took our education with us.
Armed with two laptops, two air cards and a briefcase full of paperwork, Tammy and I set up at a kitchen table overlooking a beautiful inlet. As dolphins frolicked beneath us - and while our son slept in - we would jump on the internet about 7:30am, upload our email and “crank away.”
We'd knock off about noon for lunch, then go to to the movies or enjoy some shopping. Mike and I played in the pool - I felt like 42-going-on-12, dunking my preteen son. Late in the afternoon, back to the laptops to check out messages and process enrollments. Evenings, we'd take another swim before enjoying dinner and a nice bottle of wine, sitting on the deck watching the incredible sunset over the bay.
By the end of the week, we began to think that maybe we should just buy the condo and establish an AJU extension campus. Next time, I'm thinking of renting a boat to see if we can work while actually on the bay!
Happy studying,
Don Kassner
Now you can find AJU on Twitter!
At
We now have a new place you can check us out online:
THE AJU WAY
Andrew Jackson University was established in 1994 and gained accreditation in 1998; this is a fairly impressive feat. To go from establishment to accreditation in the span of four years means the founders of the University had done an excellent job of putting together a good school with strong programs.
The founding management team also took the University through its first successful reaccreditation in 2002, once again proving the school was solid.
In 2004, the founders came to the conclusion they did not have the time or the resources to take the University to the next level. At the time, AJU was a 100% correspondence college and was not well-marketed, nor savvy in the technology of the growing online learning environment. The founders feared the market was passing them by and they didn’t have the answers.
On June 10, 2005, Joe Schmoke (AJU'S CEO) and I came on board, along with a group of investors who brought in much needed capital. Joe and I are seasoned business veterans who know how to market, operate and build businesses.
Since June 10, 2005, we have moved forward with a strategy that is, I believe, unique to education. We are not interested in using the same online education playbook almost everyone else is using – you know, the one calling for extensive internet marketing and expensive lead generation. Our strategy since 2005 has been to develop and foster strategic partnerships which allow us to reach potential students at a very low to zero cost.
Our first partnership was with Brian Tracy International, an entrepreneurship and training organization with over 400,000 email list partners. The second partnership was with Jeff Rubenstein and his company Advanced Public Safety. Both of those companies became early education “sponsors" and we launched the Brian Tracy and APS scholarship programs.
On the technology side, we have had a coherent and solid strategy since we took over in 2005. With a background in software and web development, we've spent a significant amount of time developing our own software and LMS tools to enable us to be 100% online and 100% paperless in our operations. Simply put, our technology strategy puts us ahead of the market. So far ahead, our 2007 accreditation site-visit team struggled with our paperless record-keeping concept because they had never seen such used before.
As a business, we have not stopped there – we have continued in the "forward-thinking" mode.
In 2007, we changed our business “mantra” and created the Take Education Anywhere program. The idea here is online education is yesterday – it is static, using technology to do the same thing the same way. We are interested in moving beyond that. Much of the Take Education Anywhere program has been developed in-house by our Technology Coordinator, Jarrod Morgan. Jarrod is a veteran of the social network community, having run his own company (Slamwire) and a real estate social networking company (realtorclix). Since late 2006, Jarrod and I have been planning the next steps to Take Education Anywhere through the use of handhelds, social networking, cell phones, webcams, and the other tools that technology offers us today.
So – is there a catch? No. This is simply the “AJU Way”. We provide high quality and affordable education! And...not charging tuition was the next logical step in our evolution.
So jump on board and let the "AJU Way" help you Take Education Anywhere...
Happy studying,
Don Kassner
The founding management team also took the University through its first successful reaccreditation in 2002, once again proving the school was solid.
In 2004, the founders came to the conclusion they did not have the time or the resources to take the University to the next level. At the time, AJU was a 100% correspondence college and was not well-marketed, nor savvy in the technology of the growing online learning environment. The founders feared the market was passing them by and they didn’t have the answers.
On June 10, 2005, Joe Schmoke (AJU'S CEO) and I came on board, along with a group of investors who brought in much needed capital. Joe and I are seasoned business veterans who know how to market, operate and build businesses.
Since June 10, 2005, we have moved forward with a strategy that is, I believe, unique to education. We are not interested in using the same online education playbook almost everyone else is using – you know, the one calling for extensive internet marketing and expensive lead generation. Our strategy since 2005 has been to develop and foster strategic partnerships which allow us to reach potential students at a very low to zero cost.
Our first partnership was with Brian Tracy International, an entrepreneurship and training organization with over 400,000 email list partners. The second partnership was with Jeff Rubenstein and his company Advanced Public Safety. Both of those companies became early education “sponsors" and we launched the Brian Tracy and APS scholarship programs.
On the technology side, we have had a coherent and solid strategy since we took over in 2005. With a background in software and web development, we've spent a significant amount of time developing our own software and LMS tools to enable us to be 100% online and 100% paperless in our operations. Simply put, our technology strategy puts us ahead of the market. So far ahead, our 2007 accreditation site-visit team struggled with our paperless record-keeping concept because they had never seen such used before.
As a business, we have not stopped there – we have continued in the "forward-thinking" mode.
In 2007, we changed our business “mantra” and created the Take Education Anywhere program. The idea here is online education is yesterday – it is static, using technology to do the same thing the same way. We are interested in moving beyond that. Much of the Take Education Anywhere program has been developed in-house by our Technology Coordinator, Jarrod Morgan. Jarrod is a veteran of the social network community, having run his own company (Slamwire) and a real estate social networking company (realtorclix). Since late 2006, Jarrod and I have been planning the next steps to Take Education Anywhere through the use of handhelds, social networking, cell phones, webcams, and the other tools that technology offers us today.
So – is there a catch? No. This is simply the “AJU Way”. We provide high quality and affordable education! And...not charging tuition was the next logical step in our evolution.
So jump on board and let the "AJU Way" help you Take Education Anywhere...
Happy studying,
Don Kassner
The hidden costs of college
Earlier this month we launched our new sponsored tuition program and it's generating a lot of buzz.
The biggest buzz we get is the question: “How can you do that?” Well, it’s a really simple answer.
We can offer a high-quality, low-cost education because we have identified and eliminated most of the hidden costs of running a University.
If you've watched my video presentation http://www.viddler.com/explore/AndrewJacksonU/videos/60/ , you've heard my indictment of the cost of marketing; it's one of the largest costs in the business of higher education. Universities are tripping over each other to generate leads on the internet. This competition drives the cost of lead generation through the roof, to the point where it costs a typical institution around $6,000 in upfront costs to attract each student who will end up graduating.
Our sponsored tuition program drives our cost of acquisition to less than $100 per student; that's less than $300 for a student who will ultimately graduate from our program. This savings is passed on to you.
Another huge cost to universities is the administration of federal student aid. There are at least 32 specific and lengthy regulations to which institutions must adhere in order to participate in federal 'Title IV' aid programs, including elaborate costly tracking and record-keeping requirements. And even if we did offer Title IV - as a DETC-accredited school, AJU would be allowed to generate no more than 50% of total revenue through Title IV funding. (Non-DETC schools can generate 90% of their revenue through Title IV.) In order to maintain a 50/50 ratio, we would have to spend even more on marketing to keep our student body 'balanced,' considering the demand for aid. By opting out of 'Title IV' funding (with the exception of helping you defer student loans you may already have incurred), AJU avoids infrastructure to administer the programs and saves thousands of dollars per student.
By keeping your educational cost low now, you can avoid the 'hangover' of a decade of student loan payback after you graduate.
A third area of cost is infrastructure. AJU supports no athletic programs or other expensive frills; we don't even maintain a campus, with the high costs of building maintenance/utilities/insurance/security...well, I could go on. In addition, AJU has based our technology infrastructure on open-source technology (myClassroom, configured in Moodle) so we avoid those massive annual technology licensing fees.
All of these cost savings are built into our pricing model – and the winner is the student.
We only spend money on the things that add value to education: The curriculum, the faculty, and the support staff who are here to serve the students.
We do it differently – we do it better – we do it for less. We will be the best at the lowest! Take Education Anywhere...because you can afford to go!
Happy Studying,
Don Kassner
AJU's New Commercial
Take a look at our newest commercial, starring AJU's very own Tammy Kassner!
Taking Education ANYWHERE....
If you're on the go and would like to pack in a bit of coursework on the fly, here's a website to help you locate wifi hotspots...not just in your hometown, but in 135 countries worldwide: www.jiwire.com
In about ten seconds, I was able to locate seventeen locations near AJU headquarters here in sunny Birmingham, Alabama...
Hope you're having a great summer, and happy travelling!
~ Anna ~
17 Wi-Fi Locations near Center of Postal Code 35244
Starbucks Hwy 150 & I-459 Fly
The Cost of Textbooks
I was reading the paper this weekend and noticed an article about custom textbooks in The Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB121565135185141235.html) that I wanted to share with you.
It seems as if many colleges and universities are working with publishers and distributors to create "custom" textbooks. While the concept sounds pretty good - tailoring the book to the course instead of the course to the book - the article claims that the impetus behind the move is mostly profit-related.
By customizing textbooks to fit specific courses, publishers cut out choices that college students have. Custom textbooks eliminate the possibility for students to look to the used textbook market to buy books. In economic terms, this only strengthens the monopoly that publishers have in the college textbook marketplace (and thus the high price of textbooks).
To date, Andrew Jackson has been approached various times about the implementation of custom textbooks. We have given it serious consideration because of the benefit of creating a better learning experience for the student; however, so far we have rejected the concept because it does not fit our current direction.
Our goal is to be the best provider of higher education at the lowest possible price. Everything we do must meet those two requirements: Best & Lowest.
With regard to textbooks, we have decided to take another path - working with the publishers to implement e-book options in our coursework. The e-book is a great concept, maintaining the level of quality existing in our current textbook choices while reducing the cost to the student.
We want to give AJU students more options instead of fewer options.
As an AJU student, you will have the choice between buying an e-book (if available from publisher), a hard-copy textbook, or even - yes - a used textbook if you wish.
We've also noticed a new trend toward creating free online textbooks. Although we have concerns about the provision of quality in the initial stages of these "free" options, we plan on monitoring the developments of this particular market and will move in that direction if we can meet our stated goals: Best & Lowest.
Happy Studying,
Don Kassner
It seems as if many colleges and universities are working with publishers and distributors to create "custom" textbooks. While the concept sounds pretty good - tailoring the book to the course instead of the course to the book - the article claims that the impetus behind the move is mostly profit-related.
By customizing textbooks to fit specific courses, publishers cut out choices that college students have. Custom textbooks eliminate the possibility for students to look to the used textbook market to buy books. In economic terms, this only strengthens the monopoly that publishers have in the college textbook marketplace (and thus the high price of textbooks).
To date, Andrew Jackson has been approached various times about the implementation of custom textbooks. We have given it serious consideration because of the benefit of creating a better learning experience for the student; however, so far we have rejected the concept because it does not fit our current direction.
Our goal is to be the best provider of higher education at the lowest possible price. Everything we do must meet those two requirements: Best & Lowest.
With regard to textbooks, we have decided to take another path - working with the publishers to implement e-book options in our coursework. The e-book is a great concept, maintaining the level of quality existing in our current textbook choices while reducing the cost to the student.
We want to give AJU students more options instead of fewer options.
As an AJU student, you will have the choice between buying an e-book (if available from publisher), a hard-copy textbook, or even - yes - a used textbook if you wish.
We've also noticed a new trend toward creating free online textbooks. Although we have concerns about the provision of quality in the initial stages of these "free" options, we plan on monitoring the developments of this particular market and will move in that direction if we can meet our stated goals: Best & Lowest.
Happy Studying,
Don Kassner
Lowering the cost of attending college
Starting this week, Andrew Jackson University is testing a new method of financing a college education. We will be utilizing the private market with 21st century marketing techniques to completely eliminate out-of-pocket tuition for our students.
To take advantage of this new and unique opportunity, students need only to apply to Andrew Jackson University through one of our marketing partner sites. Applying through a partner site makes the applicant eligible for a 100% tuition sponsorship for their entire program at AJU. Once enrolled, the student will only need to pay a per-semester student fee, a per-course proctoring fee, and for textbooks. The net effect of this program is that a student can reduce out of pocket expenses by 50% or more while studying at AJU.
To date, AJU has entered into two sponsor partnerships. The first is with an up-and-coming Social Learning Network called PupilCity (www.pupilcity.com); the second is with a local Alabama magazine, Birmingham Parent.
'Take Education Anywhere' has another meaning. At AJU, we make education accessible and affordable - Anywhere!
For more information, contact admissions at 800-429-9300, opt 1.
- Don Kassner, AJU President
Got change?
When considering your educational options, you have two choices:
Do you have enough change (nickels and dimes)?
Or: do you need a change?
For years, higher education institutions have been increasing not only their tuition rates - student fees are becoming more prevalent and more costly for the average student. According to College Board (quoted recently in the New York Times), fees have been rising faster than tuition rates in over half the nation’s four-year public colleges. In addition, fees are rising at an average rate of 8 percent to 11 percent per institution – much more steeply than the national rate of inflation.
At the University of Oregon, some of these fees are attributed to the following (per student):
- Energy surcharge, $51
- Campus Health Center, $371.25 (maintenance only, regardless of any actual health center visits)
- Incidental Fee, $624 (miscellaneous)
While tuition rates at the University of Oregon are approximately $3,984 per semester, university fees such as these (not even including the fees for specific courses/degree programs) add up to an additional $1,542 per student – adding almost an additional 40 percent to the university’s tuition rate. This ratio of tuition to fees may seem steep, but it’s actually not the most drastic difference between fees and tuition for four-year institutions. At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, various fees add up to around $4,100 per semester – nearly five times the tuition rate of about $857 per semester.
Why is this important? Because the schools mentioned above are not exceptions – they are now the standards in the educational world. State schools, public institutions, private colleges, various universities are all forcing students to pay exorbitant fees in addition to rising tuition costs. Most of us are aware of the price of tuition when deciding on a school. But these “hidden” fees aren’t charged until after one has enrolled at a typical university and has begun courses. By attending school online, you will never be forced to pay for a cafeteria plan, a student recreation fee, a health center fee – or my personal favorite, a “Parking Too Far Into The Parking Space” fee (which actually cost me $50 for the fee plus one night a week for three months to defend my case in student court).
So I ask you – Got change? Or are you ready for a change? You can either shell out your nickels and dimes for all the fees associated with a brick and mortar campus, or you can find the change you’re looking for at Andrew Jackson University (AJU).
~ Ashley
Article referenced above can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/04/education/04fees.html
Fourth of July Tribute
Since I’m a part of the Military Education Initiative here at AJU - and since the 4th is right around the corner - I want to take a moment to thank all of the service members for keeping us a safe and free country and also to thank their families for supporting servicepeople in their efforts to keep us living in the home of the brave.
I googled “fourth of July” on the internet and found many websites which describe what this great day means; such statements as “we claimed our independence from Britain and Democracy was born,” and “It's a day of picnics and patriotic parades, a night of concerts and fireworks, and a reason to fly the American flag.”
...But it was hard to find one that said anything about the military or thanking the military for keeping us free another year...
The 4th of July seems to have had change in meaning, kind of like Christmas. My parents used to tell me not to focus on the presents received, but on the religious aspect of the holiday; in contrast, parents now stand outside of stores at 3am to get the latest gaming system for their kids (who by March will not even play with the gift). Similarly, July 4th - our soldiers are the reasons we can wave the American flag any day of the year without question and shoot those fireworks, admiring the color and size of them unfolding across the sky.
So why are we not saluting those who actually make all of the above possible?
On behalf of the staff here at AJU, we would like to say thank you to all those who currently serve or have served (and to their families): Have a great Fourth of July holiday because you are what make it possible to celebrate our country’s independence for another year.
~ Andrea
And on the lighter side...A quick shout out to Amy, Taylor, Scott, and Haley on the North Park team in the Trussville softball league who so graciously stayed after their own slow pitch softball game to play for our AJU team at 7:30 last Tuesday night. Y'all were a great asset toward our team’s victory and we appreciate your helping us out when we were in need!