Steve Cooper
Founder
Tech University of America
Visionary.
Do you know one when you see one?
Or when you hear one?
Try Steve Cooper on for size.
Your higher education career and military career have been intertwined. Please give us some highlights.
After 9/11 I was tapped to establish the first Department of the Army Police Academy. My prior experience as a professor and my familiarity with college accreditation produced success. That academy became an instrumental model for the Department of Defense. And in 2003 I helped the Army establish the first military police school on the West Coast near San Luis Obispo, California. From 2004 to 2008 I was director of instruction for several Army leadership academies.
In what project were you involved with a U.S. university?
During my last Army assignment I developed a degree completion program at Duquesne University. It's operating successfully, and it involves servicemen and women on active duty, in the reserves, as well as veterans. All told since 9/11, my activities touched the lives of 75,000 servicemen and women.
What numbers and percentages of returning veterans may be using GI Bill benefits within the next five years?
I believe the numbers will be smaller than anticipated. eArmyU served the active duty military, and its numbers were always remarkably low. Meanwhile, some 25 percent of veterans are wounded or handicapped or sufffering with post-traumatic stress disorder. The grand total of eligible veterans will likely produce slim pickings for most U.S. campuses.
What campuses will benefit?
Community colleges are accessible from home by car. They charge the right price. And they provide access to good looking girls. They are also soldier-friendly.
Discuss your background at American Public University System and how it affects your view of the the future.
In 2000, as a civilian, I was hired as Criminal Justice program coordinator at American Military University, an early online educator. I helped build relationships with the agencies that would employ our graduates. At the same time, we viewed our student body as team members, rather than leads. So today, more than half of American Public University System's new enrollments are the result of team member referrals. Successful future online educators will be networkers and adept at social networking integration.
Will returning veterans be using their GI Bill benefits online or in classrooms?
I expect more than 60 percent will seek classroom enrollment, due to their general lack of computing skills - and also because distance learning is still not integrated in military life. More importantly, they crave personal interaction, as they re-integrate as civilians in society.
What competencies should colleges and other educational organizations be developing to serve them?
Community skills. Community competencies. The college-going veteran will want to re-integrate into the community.
What career fields might be of particular interest to veterans?
Criminal justice. Construction management. Computer science. Business. Entrepreneurship. Sustainability. Sports management. Offer also a healthy dose of psychology electives as well as a certificate in operational stress and re-integration.
Who are the online educators that represent success stories we'll likely be reading about in the next five years?
Put Michael K. Clifford on your Google news alerts. Pay attention to the Richardsons at Grand Canyon University. StraighterLine and Ryan Busch have something special. FreeloadPress.com and Tom Doran will likely hit a grand slam. University of Phoenix and its 40,000 employees are overdue for a big hit.
Describe Phoenix, Arizona in a modern educational context.
This is the Silicon Valley for higher education. There are more online higher education administrators here than in the rest of the states combined. To expand in online higher education, move your operations here, or hire people from here.
Part 2
Steve Cooper talks about the deals and the apps that he thinks will transform higher education. Is he a visionary? You decide.
Describe a recent transaction in which you've been involved.
I recently sold the Institute of Construction Management Technology (ICMT) to Piccolo International University, which is led by Laura Palmer Noone. ICMT is the nation's first online school of its kind, and I was their first CEO. Piccolo recently completed their accreditation site visit. And Piccolo International University went public with an IPO the week of March 20.
What is studentpen.com, and how might it affect higher education?
Studentpen.com is one of my fledglings. We sell the Bio-Pen, an online identity verification tool, to colleges and universities. It was invented about five years ago for classified and secret uses in military and government applications. I'm presently negotiating sales and leases with fifty colleges, universities and other educational organizations. While our biometric pen does not capture, transmit or store any personal information, it can verify a student's identity with pinpoint accuracy. Pen prices are edging down below $200.
How might Google affect higher education in the next five years?
GoogleApps are already transforming peripheral applications on college campuses. Outsourced e-mail is one good example. I expect them to be among a number of online purveyors offering an alternative for the storage and processing of student information. Their data security is second to none. And they hire the best talent graduated from the best schools. Not long after they succeed at data storage, Google will probably be offering free or low-cost apps to enter, manipulate and report it.
How might social networking sites affect higher education, and how soon?
I've been waiting for you to ask. John Sperling and University of Phoenix have had a major cumulative impact on higher education for over twenty years. In five years or so, a far more significant paradigm shift is likely to occur. That's the integration of social networking into the higher education experience. Schools should stop flirting with social networking sites now - and marry one or more of them.
Explain the flirting that schools are doing and what you think they should do instead.
A school flirts by launching one school-branded page within Facebook. Or they install a myspace widget on the school's web site. And it stops there. But now it's time to actually teach courses on Facebook's site. Their students are on Facebook. Their students are familiar with Facebook, and they like it. Let them learn there as well.
Part 3
How might a college course be conducted on Facebook?
If you're using Blackboard or eCollege, you know what a learning management system is, and how it's used. So visualize FaceBook as a learning management system. Each student logs into Facebook with an authentication device. Each of his or her professors and courses are already listed among the favorites on his or her personal page and can attend each class from there. Meanwhile the instructor is posting weekly discussion questions, homework assignments, team projects, quizzes and exams on his or her pages. Everyone has an instant messenger and a variety of blogs at their disposal.
What other social networking sites may be as suitable as Facebook for collegiate instruction?
All of them! MySpace. LinkedIn. PerfSpot.
I launched it in March to put those theories into practice. We started with one survey course, Tech 100, and one handpicked student. Based on initial traffic at our website, we expect 100 students by August and 1,000 by December. I plan to seek both regional and national accreditation.
What will be your pricing model?
All courses are free of charge and open to the general public. If a student wants to begin a transcript and earn academic credit, there is a $99 per month membership fee. Our roots are in social networking, remember. The texts in use are all free or open source.
How and where do you obtain free textbooks?
Two pioneers are making them available. One is
FreeloadPress.com. The other is
FlatWorldKnowledge.com. Your readers will want to know about both of them. As a matter of fact, FlatWorldKnowledge raised more than eight million dollars last week in venture funding. They both have an interesting wiki-like approach to textbooks that college professors will find very attractive. Free tuition and free books are crucial to my desire to educate people of all incomes throughout the world.
What might that mean for companies like Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Angel?
I hoped you would ask. Their demise is on the horizon. Their products are inflexible. They operate with closed software systems that require intensive labor and significant royalties for interconnection. That's been eclipsed already in an interconnected world. If you own an iPhone, you know there are free apps available to all users that require no interconnection labor or royalties. They are immensely popular and widely used.
Where do you want to be five years from now?
I would like to have a stake in the largest university in the world.